Page 3252 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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which was created by the United Nations in 1980. It reports annually and it adds health and the level of education as measures of progress and human prosperity. I think all members would agree that they are both very good examples of the sorts of things we would want to measure when we come to assessing how we are progressing.
Another example is the OECD’s better life index, which is based on quality of life and includes social and environmental outcomes. Certainly there are other measures being developed by academic institutions, think tanks and other organisations. I think this does not mean an end to prosperity, far from it. We should measure prosperity; I think we just need to think about prosperity more broadly than simply as measured by GDP.
This comes back to Ms Le Couteur’s central point. Economic growth driven by population growth and consumption is unsustainable and alternative approaches to prosperity must be sought. I think this is a really important discussion. I think it is one the Greens are really keen to see further work on. It is why we have pushed at times to introduce measures such as triple bottom line accounting in order to try to capture some of these broader considerations.
In any discussion about population growth, which is what Mr Pettersson has brought forward today—and I think he has made some important points about the government needing to invest in infrastructure and to keep up with population growth—we cannot lose sight of the broader impacts and we should not simply be sucked down the path of thinking that population growth driving economic growth is a positive per se. We need to consider some of the broader factors. I think that is the important point made by Ms Le Couteur’s amendments. I thank her for bringing them forward and adding to the depth of the conversation today.
MR PETTERSSON (Yerrabi) (4.02): I will be very brief. I am excited about the future of Canberra. I have lived a shorter life than some in this chamber, but even in my life I have seen tremendous change within Canberra. Think back a decade or so as Braddon transformed; go back 20 or so years as Gungahlin emerged from the paddocks out north; go back a few more decades and see what was the nappy valley of Tuggeranong emerging. I am excited to see Canberra expand even now.
As you see the new suburbs in Gungahlin, Belconnen and Molonglo Valley, you are seeing more people have the absolute blessing of being a Canberran. I do not think there is a better place in this world to live. One of my fears is that there is a push within our community to limit the growth of Canberra and there will be fewer people who get to live in this amazing city and experience all of the opportunities that it provides.
One of the best things about being a member of this place is the stories that you are told. There is nothing I quite enjoy more than standing at a street stall and having someone come up to you and tell you about the good old days. In many ways they were; not in all ways, but some. One of the favourite ones I love to hear is about the early days of Gungahlin as a town centre when there were no real local shops, when it
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