Page 4032 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
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It was a great discussion and I welcome it. Of all the things I expected to be raised, I did not expect sewer socialism and second wave feminism to come up. I was advised that a recent episode of Horrible Histories gave a different historical version of the need for public toilets from the one Ms Le Couteur mentioned. But it was great to have a debate on this very important matter of government service delivery that I know affects Canberrans and on which they have very strong and welcome views. I thank Ms Orr for the motion and also note the further work that we will do, beyond the engagement on better suburbs, on community participation in the budgeting process.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (6.14): I thank Ms Orr for bringing this motion to the Assembly. I would like to start, as I often do when we talk on this topic, by acknowledging that the minister and previous ministers in this portfolio have been very responsive when I have approached them on various issues, and I would like to thank them for that. I have not always got what I have asked for, but certainly in some cases it has been a good result for the constituent or constituents who have contacted me. I would also like to commend the directorate. I, for one, am an enthusiastic user of fix my street. They get more than their fair share of issues that I raise as I go around my electorate.
I would like to touch on a few specific items that occur in my electorate. As Ms Le Couteur referred to, municipal issues are some of the most common types of issues that are raised by constituents. The first one I would like to touch on is Anketell Street in Greenway, opposite the hyperdome. There was an election commitment of about $3 million to the Anketell Street renewal, and stage 1 was, I believe, recently completed. I have seen many comments on a community Facebook page called “My Tuggeranong” about the lighting feature on Anketell Street. Originally the post postulated that it was an art installation. A series of, I think, four posts have received over 17,000 views and hundreds of comments, which I think demonstrates how people are feeling about this particular lighting feature, which originally was thought to be an art installation.
While the paving, the new seating and the trees have been, I think, relatively well received—they may not have been exactly what some people were expecting—the lighting feature has attracted a lot of comments, most of them uncomplimentary, such as “It’s a bird toilet—don’t stand underneath it,” “It looks like a giant tripod for a Bunsen burner,” “It looks like a stovetop element,” “Someone will put a giant kettle on it,” and “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a rose trellis or a lighting feature? Or is it meant to be ‘art’?”
There was quite a bit of consultation about the Anketell Street works. I note, for example, that the Tuggeranong Community Council put in some comments. I will read a couple of those comments that the Tuggeranong Community Council put in. I read them mindful of Ms Orr’s motion about engaging the Canberra community. The Tuggeranong Community Council said, as part of quite an extensive comment:
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