Page 3688 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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When I moved to Canberra in 1988 that was not the case. Canberra was very well maintained, even manicured. It was a city that looked as though we were proud of it to be our capital, and now it often looks rundown. Friends and family who visit me from interstate often remark on the changes that they have noticed over the years. One constituent who wrote to me recently said:
I have been a resident of Tuggeranong for 30 years and am noticing that, over time, it is looking sad and neglected. There is rubbish along roads and footpaths, lots of the roadside trees require attention and many of the suburban shopping centres just look shabby.
Part of the problem here is the behaviour of residents themselves. It is our own residents who are contributing to this sometimes shabby lookâdumping mattresses on the side of the road, for example. But the Labor government which has been running this territory for the last 13 years does not seem to understand that people care about how their city looks and want the government to assist with cleaning up around the place.
It is these day-to-day basics that have the greatest effect on people. I do not think there is a suburb in Canberra that would not have footpaths that require renewal and fixing. I know in my electorate it is a common issue that I get told about. A Theodore resident said to me recently:
There are numerous instances where the footpaths are breaking up or have distorted to an extent that they are a hazard to pedestrians. Over the years there have been a few instances of repair, but mostly after inspection and marking with paint or chalk, years elapse, the paint washes away and nothing is done.
In Chapman a resident recently fell over on a broken pavement and sustained an injury. We were all lucky that the injury was not any worse but, with any luck, if the footpaths were properly maintained, the chances of this occurring would be less. In Wanniassa the footpaths on Fincham Crescent had entire chunks missing and numerous areas where the damage was so significant that prams or people with mobility devices would have found it difficult to move along the street.
In many areas where damage occurs, the footpath is ground down but the cracks remain and soon enough they crack again. If the damage is serious enough, it gets patched and left for months before it is eventually fixed properly, or it is left until the patch deteriorates and the issue occurs again.
I certainly do not pretend that the footpaths would not deteriorate no matter who was in government, Madam Deputy Speaker, but these basics do not seem to be the priority of the Labor-Greens government. We seem to spend more time caring about light rail and unrealistic renewable energy targets than we do about the urban maintenance issues which affect all Canberrans every day.
Playgrounds are another neglected area of urban maintenance in this town. We are going through what some call an obesity epidemic in Canberra and right around Australia. We seem to be happy to pay for advertising to try and get people to lose
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