Page 455 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 18 February 2015
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My motion also talks about the importance of a modern, fast and reliable public transport system. As many members acknowledge, many Canberrans will continue to need to rely on the family car. I will be one of them. But I will rely on the family car and public transport in different mixes at different stages of my and my family’s life. Capital metro will add to our current public transport mix. Canberrans want their government to be thinking, planning and funding high quality services and programs for our future.
Capital metro will help to reduce the travel time from our fastest growing suburban region, Gungahlin. As I have said, I travel on this route each day to the city. I know how much it has grown over the years and how much it still has to grow. Capital metro will deliver Gungahlin residents and other residents along the first route a real alternative to car travel to and from work and for social purposes. It will also provide a real solution to the congestion building along our busiest arterial route for residents in Gungahlin and north Canberra. But it will also shape our city’s growth in the future. The range of urban renewal projects along the length of the light rail line, in stage 1 and in the future in various additional stages, will stimulate the territory economy through public and private investment.
As Minister Corbell has said many times, capital metro’s value is not just in providing transport options but also in the way it will transform our city in the future. It will drive urban renewal along the corridor, with new and innovative housing and commercial spaces. It will transform the way Canberrans move around our city and the way our community interact with one another.
This motion also asks the Assembly to support renewal across our suburbs and town centres. The government continues to invest in municipal services across our city and in upgrading our playgrounds and shopping centres—$1.2 million alone for shopping centres in this year’s budget. The government has also invested $1.2 billion in roads projects over the last 10 years. The government’s land release program contributes considerably to urban renewal. There is significant land release in greenfield sites, as well as sites in and around our town centres. Of the 13½ thousand dwelling sites in the four-year program for 2014-15, 55 per cent are classified as infill.
My motion calls on the Assembly to resolve to continue supporting the ACT government to deliver renewal across all our suburbs and town centres, to renew our public housing stock and to deliver light rail. Our track record and planned urban renewal agenda highlights that urban renewal is much more than just new buildings and construction dollars. It is about the free and seamless movement of people, ideas and investment throughout and across the city.
This government has a clear idea of the city we want to become and is mindful that this will, at times, require a paradigm shift in how our city works, grows and changes to meet today’s challenges and take hold of future opportunities. Canberra will be the place where people across the generations are compelled to stay because there is vibrancy, life and opportunity. As my motion notes, urban renewal is vital to growing Canberra’s economy and strengthening its community by improving productivity, connectivity and sustainability. I commend the motion.
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