Page 2885 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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$30 million commitment for active travel, which means that the parliamentary agreement item is now largely funded.
I would like to highlight a couple of these. I will choose ones in my electorate: the substantial funding of over $5 million in the Woden town centre, which is a key element of the master plan; and the Heysen Drive cycle link, which is making the shoulder a lot safer for bike riders. While I am talking about Murrumbidgee, the budget also includes substantial funding for the early planning work for light rail stage 2.
One bit I am particularly pleased about is the business case for upgrading the Woden bus interchange, which will be done to tie in with the light rail. This is something which has been promised for many years. In the Seventh Assembly there was a totally different proposal, in conjunction with Westfield, which did not happen as Westfield did not expand. I have spoken here many times about the need for an upgrade. I sincerely hope the business case is done soon and that we get on with upgrading the interchange. I will say more about that, I suspect, tomorrow, on Miss Burch’s motion about buses. Fixing the Woden interchange will be a big step forward for Woden.
I also note that the budget contains over $1 million for bus stop infrastructure for the expanded rapid bus network. I am sure that every cent of that is going to be needed, particularly in my electorate in Weston, which is becoming a bus interchange where it previously was not. I note with pleasure that the expanded bus network is a parliamentary agreement item.
Something else I am very pleased about is that there is going to be a 12-month extension of the trial of free off-peak public transport for concession card holders. This was a parliamentary agreement item. It has been well received by low income Canberrans. I note that expanding this to no longer be a trial but to become permanent was a recommendation of the estimates committee.
There is obviously in the ACT, as everywhere else, a high demand for expenditure on public open space upgrades. The problem is, of course, that there is only limited funding for that. There are a number of ways we could address this.
One of those is participatory budgeting. This is a way in which we get the community to help prioritise spending. This is something we should be looking to do more of: to get the community to help us make decisions, plan and prioritise. I am very pleased to see the government’s better suburbs process working with the community on this. It is engaging residents and aiming to improve city services. Next weekend, I believe, there is a day which is focusing on play spaces. I am hoping to be able to attend some of that as an observer. Better suburbs looks like a good example of community consultation, although it is not exactly participatory budgeting. My hope is that participatory budgeting will naturally follow on from better suburbs. I note that last year the Assembly was kind enough to pass my motion on a trial for participatory budgeting.
The second solution is some process to enable local communities to get involved. Communities sometimes are happy to organise working bees and to fundraise.
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