Page 1305 - Week 04 - Thursday, 30 March 2017
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to make the city we love even better. It can have a more vibrant urban heart and it can provide more choices for the people that choose to live and work here.
It is the right time now for government to provide the focus, resources and expertise to lead this necessary transformation of our city. We will not let the negative urban changes that are sweeping through other Australian cities shape us. Together Canberrans will shape the change and build the city we want for ourselves and our children.
Over coming decades our city will be defined by the construction of a modern transport network, by 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.
Canberra will be winning the global contest for investment and talent, in part through better metropolitan infrastructure and integrated smart city initiatives. The very buildings in which people live and work in Canberra will help drive each of these ambitions. Through this bill we have the opportunity to get the balance right between a dynamic city centre and flourishing suburbs, keeping the Canberra we love and making it better by preparing for the future.
This bill creates two new entities: the City Renewal Authority, the CRA, and the Suburban Land Agency, the SLA, to replace and build on the work of the Land Development Agency, which was tasked with developing and selling land on behalf of the ACT government. At the core of the bill are the following principles: clarity of role and responsibilities; engagement, consultation and collaboration with stakeholders; robust governance arrangements; and social inclusion, community involvement and affordable housing.
The bill establishes the City Renewal Authority. The CRA will be responsible for urban renewal within declared urban renewal precincts. The CRA will focus on encouraging and promoting a vibrant city through the delivery of design-led, people-focused urban renewal and encouraging and promoting social and environmental sustainability.
As I set out in my statement to the Assembly in December last year when I outlined the policy rationale for this reform, living in our city affects us socially, practically, economically and psychologically, and defines our existence. We must, therefore, pursue this next stage in Canberra’s development from a people-focused perspective founded on principles of good design and place making.
The challenge I outlined in December last year is to not let ourselves become a museum of the early 20th century’s conception of city life but to aim to show how the people of this time want to live and work. The path to this Canberra requires transformational urban renewal and innovation, underpinned by the light rail network and the city to the lake project, with a strong design foundation.
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