Page 3728 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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Madam Assistant Speaker, the capital metro project will lay the foundation for a sustainable and integrated public transport network for Canberra now and into the future. I commend Dr Bourke for bringing this motion forward today.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (11.06): Having grown up in Canberra, I have seen just how much our city and my own local community have changed. While change in our communities is constant, in recent years the investment the government is making in Belconnen and across Canberra to improve our city is significant. Our government is delivering essential infrastructure and services, combined with a commitment to social justice, economic responsibility and environmental sustainability. Capital metro is one element of this infrastructure. It will truly be a transformative project, but it is just one of many investments and projects that are contributing to the renewal of our communities and providing even better services and community spaces.
In Belconnen in the early 1970s, when my family moved here, the only building was the fire station. Almost 50 years on, our town centre has grown and continues to grow and change. We have seen a lot of investment in more recent times, including more services and more staff at the Belconnen Community Health Centre and walk-in centre. The community health centre provides a wider range of health services for the community at a single facility and has the scope for expanded services in the future, including outpatient treatments that are usually provided in a hospital setting. It is a state-of-the art facility which allows people to receive health care close to their homes. It is centrally located in the Belconnen town centre and close to the Belconnen bus interchange to allow people to easily access the centre from public transport.
In the future we will have a new hospital, the University of Canberra public hospital, a hospital that will offer a range of rehabilitation services, such as neurological and older persons’ rehabilitation, as well as mental health and day hospital services such as hydrotherapy. Its location will ensure close links with the university and research sector, with spaces allocated for teaching and research within the hospital itself.
There have also been upgrades to bus stops on Southern Cross Drive, increased weekend bus services in Macgregor, road upgrades to Maribyrnong Avenue and Copland Drive, an upgraded College Street bus transit way, including park and ride, and improved parking at Radford College. The Belconnen-to-city transit way is allowing for quicker and safer trips into the city for bus users and cyclists and the Belconnen town centre has seen many improvements, including investment in residential development.
These projects, big and small, deliver economic stimulus and jobs and social benefits across our city. They represent Labor’s proud history of making Canberra the fair, progressive and prosperous place it is—not the dark and dangerous place that the Canberra Liberals continue to moan about. Our investment delivers certainty for both the community and business. It also represents the delivery of successful urban renewal projects for many years to improve the lives of people across Canberra.
We have a clear vision for our community for now and for what our city will need to become in Canberra’s second century. In contrast, those opposite have no alternative
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