Page 454 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 18 February 2015
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A recent study by the Grattan Institute found that CBDs and inner suburbs are the engine rooms of our economy. Economic activity is concentrating in CBDs and inner suburbs because high knowledge intensive firms need highly skilled workers, and locating in the city gives firms access to more of them. Investing in the livability and accessibility of our city centre as proposed by city to the lake and capital metro will have a profound impact on economic growth and the prosperity of our city.
Productivity is important to grow our economy across the board, to generate shared wealth across our community, to drive innovation and to expand and strengthen our labour market. The ACT government’s business development strategy, which the Chief Minister will update tomorrow, will provide further detail. As the Chief Minister has noted, the ACT government’s vision for business development is built on fostering the right business environment, supporting business investment and accelerating business innovation.
Connectivity is also important. The previous federal Labor government’s visionary project, the national broadband network, has the potential to transform people’s lives and to open up new and exciting opportunities for learning and working. While we do not suffer from the tyranny of distance within Canberra, the NBN offers the possibilities of working from home, as well as the possibilities of communicating and collaborating nationally and internationally on a wide range of different projects.
I know that in my local area in Gungahlin, it has transformed local businesses and its use in the digital hub located at the Gungahlin Library and CIT Learning Centre has helped not just with study but also people seeking advice and support from a range of government services, notably Centrelink. This has meant that people no longer need to wait in queues at offices and can get directly and quickly to services they need.
The renewal of the ACT’s public housing stock is also important. It is important because everyone deserves to live in good quality housing in the private and public sectors. The ACT government’s housing stock is ageing. Some properties were built in a time when energy efficiency was not on the agenda and they are therefore expensive to heat and cool and now they are becoming more expensive to maintain.
The ACT government’s policy objective to renew our public housing stock is grounded in the belief that public and social housing is vital to the lives of many Canberra families as an enabling service to help them improve their chances of participating in and contributing to our economy and community. Canberra has always had a unique approach to public housing, what has become known as the salt and peppering of housing to distribute social housing throughout our suburbs and regions. This is a good thing and it will continue.
The renewal of the public housing stock will bring a boost also to our construction sector, with new construction jobs. As well, I know that the Chief Minister and the Minster for Housing are keen to explore innovative ways of funding this renewal, seeking partnerships with community housing organisations and the private sector to contribute to this important project.
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