Page 1514 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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In today’s highly mobile world, simply being the seat of Government isn’t enough to attract the world’s best and brightest any more.
We need to offer the lifestyle, event and housing options that people want.
We are already the world’s most liveable city, so we start with a significant advantage.
He spoke about creating a more economically self-reliant Canberra that drives job creation in emerging industries and by conceiving of Canberra as a true “knowledge capital” where our world-class universities have structural advantages over their Australian and international competitors.
This is all good, and it is what we would expect from a Chief Minister. We want him talking up the territory, unlike what he has done today in predicting gloom and doom for Canberra when even his immediate predecessor had to admit this morning that in the coming year we will not see massive job cuts for Canberra. But in all of the address, not once—not once—did the Chief Minister make any mention of Canberra’s senior population. And, Mr Barr, it was noticed.
This address was a key statement about the ambition and vision the Chief Minister has for the future of Canberra, and one of our most vulnerable and growing demographics failed to rate a mention. If this was not bad enough already, the Chief Minister went on to imply, in response to a question, that seniors were becoming a problem in the ACT because they chose to stay in Canberra, when previously they retired to the coast, thus posing a future burden on the ACT economy.
The Chief Minister’s scathing and divisive remarks about seniors in that response to a question at his state of the territory address disappointed many across the community, including the ACT Council of Social Service, ACTCOSS, who tweeted after the address: “Not keen at all on the generation divide and conflict being spruiked by Andrew Barr in the State of the Territory address.”
ACTCOSS, like many others in our community, have recognised that there is a growing generational divide being created by the Chief Minister, and the concerns relate not just to his comments but to the example this sets to his ministers and government. It is not exactly the kind of unbiased leadership that we all expect from the Chief Minister of this territory.
There was a clear presumption in his talk that the future for Canberra and future needs for Canberra revolved around younger members of our community. Mr Barr has highlighted in committee meetings that the largest demographic in Canberra is people aged 20 to 24. Given that we are home to five universities or representative campuses and a multisite technology institute that attracts residential students, that should come as no surprise. And it is important that we continue to offer educational opportunities of a high standard and to promote these opportunities for the current generation and also to recognise their importance and their future contributions in the ACT. But, Mr Barr, it need not be and—
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