Page 4023 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
with, rather than presenting a proposal that they can apply adjustments to, most people have responded with pleasant surprise. This is the sort of long-term vision provided by the better suburbs plan. By engaging our community in an open discussion, this strategy serves to improve the understanding our community has of our existing approach and to instil our community values into how we go about service delivery into the future.
In presenting this motion, I call on the ACT government to pursue community engagement and to continue to deliver on the ACT government’s commitment to improving our consultation processes. I call on all members to support the motion, in acknowledgement of the progress the government is making in hearing the voices of Canberrans as we plan for our city’s future.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (5.39): The Canberra Liberals welcome this opportunity to discuss what I think is core business for this place—the delivery of urban services. Of course, roads, rates and rubbish, as it is regularly referred to, is usually the domain of councils. However, we in this place have the broad portfolio of everything from rubbish bins through to the health service. Sometimes it is very easy for the Assembly, and perhaps even for ministers, to get caught up with those state functions and not give due attention to what are essentially urban services or council services.
These are the sorts of issues that make and break council elections right around the country. These are issues that determine whether mayors get elected and whether councillors get returned. These are things that actually determine the make-up of councils right across Australia, whereas here, because we do not necessarily have that 100 per cent focus on these issues, sometimes it is easy for a lot of them to fly under the radar. So I do appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter this afternoon.
There are many areas that we could touch on in this debate, and I am sure collectively we will do a pretty good job of doing so. There are a few in particular that I want to mention. The first of those is street sweeping. The government will say that streets get swept every three months. I certainly hope that is the case, but I have a feeling that if you were to camp outside your house for 90 days, you would not necessarily see a truck come by your house. I hope you would, but I think there is a fair chance that, whilst there might be some that are being done frequently, there are probably others that are being done less frequently. Whilst it may well be that they are clocking up a certain number of kilometres that averages out to be every street once every three months, it is probably a bit of a stretch to say that every single street in Canberra is being swept every three months. But if the government has data to the contrary, I would be delighted to see it.
There are several issues with the schedule. There are several suburbs that are not included—Pialligo, Fyshwick, Lawson, Casey, Throsby, Jacka, Mitchell, Moncrieff, Taylor, Coombs, Wright and Denman. I note that the street sweeping schedule was last updated in August 2014 and that an update is due in December 2017. That is according to the answer to a question on notice that we received on this subject. I am surprised that there is such a lengthy gap in the schedule being updated. I would have
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video