Page 5013 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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and what comes out of that review. Why could we not look at naming places “Eureka Square”, “Eureka Place” or “Eureka Mall”? There are other towns and cities that have done that.
I did have a moment of amusement while Mr Parton was speaking. Anyone would think that this idea is something that no-one has thought of ever in the history of the world, that we have never thought to rename anything. Washington DC is renamed a lot. Mr Parton mentioned having all our streets and suburbs named as numbers and units. Well, in New York most of the streets are things like 53rd and 27th streets; they are numbers. The first 21 streets in Narrabundah were all numbers, not names. Names came many years later. We have renamed a lot of things in the ACT over the years, some for good, some where maybe we could have thought about things a bit better.
This is an opportunity to look at some of the place names that we currently have in Canberra, some of the place names that do and can cause hurt to people in the community, some of the place names that may not meet today’s community standards. I have named two in my motion. I have named William Slim Drive and Haig Park. They are easy ones to look at. They are non-residential.
I agree with Ms Le Couteur that renaming streets can be difficult. There are big consultation processes that would need to be undertaken if that were ever to occur. But we can do things. We can rename things. We can ask for reviews. I think anyone and everyone in the community who believes that they have a case to put forward to the Place Names Committee should do so. Raise it with us; raise it with your members of parliament. These are all legitimate causes and legitimate actions to follow.
I look forward to hearing back about the review in June next year. I think it is a review that is well timed to occur. I look forward to hearing about how we go with the renaming of William Slim Drive and Haig Park. It would be wonderful if some of the people who still feel the pain of having to drive along William Slim Drive every day did not have to think about those things, if the start and end of their day were not couched in the reminder of a previous time in their lives.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Language education
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (5.41): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) the ACT government should refocus Canberra on being the best city in Australia to learn a second language;
(b) Canberra is a great multicultural city;
(c) learning a second language from an early age has enormous benefits for all children – academically, socially, culturally and for future employability;
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