Page 2055 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018
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As I mentioned yesterday, Canberra is undeniably growing. Approximately 7,000 more Canberrans are born or arrive here each year. People are moving here for good jobs and for our great lifestyle. Our economy is stronger than anywhere else in the country, and people are attracted to the quality, full-time, sustainable, well-paid jobs that our economy offers. People are settling here and raising families.
What we as a government—and, indeed, as this Assembly—must do as we cast our minds forward is to plan for this growth, to continue to invest in the core services that are essential to Canberra remaining the world’s most livable city, and to shape our city as it grows, to retain what we love about Canberra and to improve on areas where improvement is possible.
As I outlined in the budget speech yesterday, no other government in Australia delivers as many services as we do. We are unique in being both a state and local government. We take responsibility for the provision of every service, from lawn mowing to emergency health treatment, very seriously.
Canberra is Australia’s most active community, with more and more people walking or riding around our city. We want to continue our focus on keeping Canberrans active and making Canberra even more accessible by foot or by bike.
This is a change in thinking from the Canberra of the 1970s and 1980s. Just as we said we would, the government is delivering an additional $30 million in active travel infrastructure over this term. This includes investing in an integrated bike network for Belconnen which links suburbs like Florey with the Belconnen town centre, the Lake Ginninderra foreshore and the major study and sporting institutions in the Bruce precinct. We are also expanding the cycling and footpath connections in the Woden and Tuggeranong town centres, constructing an off-road rapid bike network and completing the Lyons to Weston Creek cycle path link.
On top of these very practical and tangible active travel improvements, the budget has invested more in core municipal services for our suburbs. It is clear that Canberrans want a neat, well-maintained and pleasant urban environment, whether that is our parklands, our playgrounds or our local paths. We are aware of that, and we are investing more to achieve that outcome.
There is $10 million additional in this budget for more mowing, for more weeding, for more graffiti removal, to protect our waterways, and to manage our trees. Playground improvements and construction will be led by a community-driven process to give all residents a say. And we are continuing our investment in improving basic services like rubbish collection as well as continuing the rollout of the very popular green bin service, with all households able to access the service by 2019. As Ms Cheyne has set out in her motion, this is another practical example of the ACT government investing to improve our suburbs.
We are also investing in overhauling Canberra’s public transport system to make it faster, easier and more convenient for more Canberrans. I am particularly pleased to be able to allocate more funding to progress the planning and approval of the second
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