Page 1018 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017
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I can remember playing volleyball on what were nice grassed areas. Woden, when I was working there, was basically the centre of Canberra. Civic looked like—well, who cared about Civic? Woden was it. I believe that the population centre of Canberra at that time was actually Mawson. It was a very different place. Part of the reason, as Ms Cheyne has said, is the massive decline in employment there, which is largely due to the federal government.
Of course, that is not the only reason for the issues in Woden. Part of it is simply that we have moved the focus in Canberra from the south to the north. That is one of the things that was very obvious in doorknocking over the last election. People’s views on the light rail varied on whether or not they thought it was intrinsically a good thing.
But one thing that a lot of people felt, regardless of whether they wanted light rail, was that they too should have a share of whatever was being built. Most people seemed to feel, “Why should the north have all the shiny new toys?” regardless of whether they actually wanted that particular shiny new toy.
I think it is really important that this Assembly and this government look at Woden and Tuggeranong as being parts of Canberra that deserve as much consideration as northern Canberra. In this respect, one of the things I have said is that it is probably a positive for Tuggeranong, Woden and Weston that there actually are now five electorates.
I was previously a member for Molonglo. I can remember that Woden used to be split in half. That is probably one of the reasons there has not been as much development in Woden as those of us who live in Woden, who love Woden, would like to see. It is because it was split between two electorates. Now there are five members for Murrumbidgee who all have an interest in ensuring that Woden, Weston, Kambah and Molonglo all flourish, I think this will be a positive thing for Woden.
I would hazard a guess that that is probably one of the reasons we have this MPI today and we had so many questions today about Woden-related issues. I am very pleased that the ACT government has been doing some work in moving people into Woden, moving workers into Woden, though I do reflect that the situation is quite bizarre. We had the InTACT move from the Callam Offices over to Gungahlin to try and get some employment there; so they were moving from Woden to Gungahlin. Now we are trying to move the jigsaw pieces around. The reality is that the ACT government does not have enough employment to fill the gaps that the federal government has left.
The other thing I should note from an employment point of view is that it is very positive that there is a group called the Phillip traders. Ms Cody, Mr Steel and I have attended their meetings. They are doing their best to encourage local employment and beautification of the areas around Woden from a business point of view.
Higher education is another area of concern. The Murrumbidgee electorate as a whole is lacking higher education. We used to have a CIT. In the 2015-16 budget there was the following commitment:
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