Page 543 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
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infrastructure and services to residents. We are pleased that Ms Orr will move an amendment to my amendment. I hope that this results in a positive outcome for the Gungahlin community.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Roads) (6.19): I thank Ms Orr for her motion today and her commitment to building a vibrant community in Gungahlin. This motion highlights the work of our government in providing the Gungahlin community with the right community facilities to cater to its diverse needs and the needs of future facilities as it continues to grow beyond its current community centre.
In early 2017 my colleague Mick Gentleman, the Minister for Planning and Land Management, requested the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate to undertake a plan refresh of the overarching planning framework for the Gungahlin town centre. The refresh was undertaken in response to specific concerns raised by the community about the future and focus of development happening in the town centre.
The Gungahlin town centre planning refresh focused on three key themes: building height and character, livability, and amenity. The refresh was also tasked with ensuring that future growth and urban intensification in the Gungahlin town centre would be appropriately managed and directed, at the same time maximising the benefits that light rail will bring. Importantly, what emerged through the planning refresh and community engagement was the need to carefully consider the provision of community facilities within the town centre to support its growing residential population and that of the broader region in Gungahlin.
Gungahlin is a growing region. To understand the qualities that give the region its specific character, we must recognise that it has a diverse population. It has a wide variety of needs. It is a region that includes people from all age groups, from many culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and with many interests. Currently the suburb of Gungahlin has a population of around 6,300 people, and the wider region of Gungahlin has 76,000 people. These numbers are set to increase significantly over the next 10 years, with projections suggesting that around 10,000 people will seek to make the Gungahlin region their home.
Gungahlin is unique in its demographics and they are quite different from other regions in Canberra. In 2016 the median age was 31.5 years, compared with 34.7 years for the whole of the ACT; 24 per cent of the population was aged between zero and 14 years, compared to 19 per cent across the whole territory; 5.5 per cent of the population was aged 65 and over, compared with more than 12 per cent of the ACT population; 62.2 per cent of the population were born in Australia, compared to 68 for the ACT; and 56 per cent were couple families with children, compared with 47 per cent for the ACT.
As a region that has a large number of families and younger children, the inclusion of fit-for-purpose community facilities and services for this growing region is an important goal for the ACT government in the future. Community facilities can make
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