Page 3455 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
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just this past Sunday did indeed have proposals to collocate playgrounds at local shops. I think there was some recognition from me, from TCCS and from the community group that being able to collocate playgrounds with areas where people already gather in larger numbers—local shops are a perfect example—would be high on their priority list. I look forward to receiving their final recommendations.
Work will start on defined projects after the statement is released, with further improvements to be based on the community-identified vision and priorities for the next four years and beyond. That will set us up very well to undertake some participatory budgeting with the community in the context of next year’s budget. This forum was a great experience and very valuable for both the community and the directorate, and we look forward to sharing its outcomes.
I also want to respond to a couple of other issues. Certainly water bubblers have been extensively provided throughout the territory. We are looking to provide access to more free water bubblers and, in the context of the debates today about not only investing in our local shops but also reducing the use of single-use plastics, I note that water bubblers can be a considerable benefit. We have many in our group and town centres now, and we look forward to further investment in those.
I would also like to clarify for Ms Lee, who referred to the government slashing the bus route, and remind the opposition that the government, in fact, is making a massive investment in our bus network. Yes, it is changing. We are spending $43 million on new buses and nearly $40 million on new bus services. There is no definition under which an $80 million investment in our bus network and a massive investment in light rail in any way constitutes a slashing of bus services. I certainly acknowledge that there are changes but there are not slashes; there are massive investments in our bus network. I would welcome the opposition clarifying that point. (Time expired.)
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.16): The Greens will not support the original motion and will instead be supporting Minister Fitzharris’s amendment. While I think that the “calls on” part of Ms Lee’s motion is fine—well, it is fairly innocuous—there are two main reasons why I cannot support the motion as a whole.
My first concern is with the tone of the motion. I, like other people in Canberra, I am sure, have supported my local shops in the different places I have lived in over the years that I have lived here. But the local shops that I go to are not really the local shops that Ms Lee’s motion seems to be talking about. From the sound of her motion, our local shops are derelict crime hollows; they are “run down”, “poorly lit”, the target of “vandals”, and “lacking basic and regular maintenance”. They are really not that bad.
There was a period in Canberra when I will admit things got pretty bad. During the 1990s many of the local shopping centres were in pretty dire straits. Those of us who were here then would actually agree with that. I remember that, during the Seventh Assembly, the planning committee did an inquiry into supermarket competition, and people were pretty negative about their local shops then. But the situation has changed, I think, and most local shopping centres are doing okay. Certainly, community interest in having local shops and local facilities does seem to be rising. There are new
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