Page 452 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 18 February 2015

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Canberra—urban renewal

MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo) (11.22): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the Government has committed to urban renewal as a policy priority;

(b) that urban renewal is vital to growing Canberra’s economy and strengthening its community by improving productivity, connectivity and sustainability;

(c) that much of the ACT’s public housing stock was built to the standards of an earlier time, is reaching the end of its useful life, and is in need of renewal; and

(d) the importance of public transport, including light rail, to delivering good urban renewal outcomes; and

(2) resolves to support the Government’s work to:

(a) deliver urban renewal in Canberra’s suburbs and town centres;

(b) renew Canberra’s public housing stock; and

I am pleased today to move this motion on urban renewal. And I am pleased to be part of a government for whom urban renewal is such a high priority. As I said in my first speech last week, I am proud to be part of a government that understands our challenges, understands our history and is embracing our future.

These characteristics will all inform the government’s policy priority of urban renewal. As government members have noted previously and consistently, we have a rich history in a young city but that history must continue to be written. We must build on our past but not be constrained by it.

We must plan for our future, and urban renewal is vital to this future. We must—and I think this is important—understand our challenges: population growth, climate change and energy and food security. But in most challenges there is opportunity—for example, the opportunities that come from people wanting to move to our city, from the opportunities that renewable energy brings not just for our environment but also for local businesses to foster innovation and help to create new and thriving industries.

There are challenges also in the way our community wants to live; how and where they work, live and play; how and how often they move from one part of the city to another; how they communicate. On all these counts this government understands what the future holds and how Canberra will find its place in this future—the brilliant possibilities it holds.

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