Page 4194 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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it operates; it affects Jamison and how it operates; it probably even affects Curtin and how it is able to operate. I do not think the minister gets up every day worrying about these issues.
And the hide of the Greens! They supported the use of community facility zoned land for public housing developments, which are being developed at huge cost to the public, not properly salt and peppering people throughout the community, which should be the government’s policy. Now that two-thirds of the one block of community facility zoned land in Wright has been built on, what has happened? We have a community hall that the community cannot use. It would be funny if it was part of a Yes Minister proposal, but it is not. This is real. This government has become a complete joke.
Coombs peninsula people have a lot to ask of this government. Coombs peninsula people want their nature park on the end of Coombs peninsula left as it is. As Ms Le Couteur says, there are practically no trees left. We have developed every inch of space except a very narrow corridor around the river which is super windy. I do not know if Minister Gentleman has ever tried to have a barbecue on the side of Coombs peninsula or sit at the barbecue areas that were built there. It is like sitting in a tornado. Kids’ jumpers fly away and coffee cups fly away because the site the government has put the picnic facilities on is not appropriate and does not have any tree coverage. For 30 additional dwellings the minister is trying to sacrifice the last remaining little bit of natural space that the people of Coombs have.
There are dozens of unkempt building blocks in Coombs. I do not know what happened there, as opposed to other suburbs, but it is not good enough that people have to live for three, four or five years with a block next door that is unfenced, unkept and dirty and that has couches dumped on it on a regular basis. It is not what they paid $600,000 or $700,000 for a block of land that they were going to build on for. Those people are paying off million-dollar properties just for a suburban house, yet next door they have to look at these blocks. There are streets that have three and four of these blocks in them.
Unlike Caroline, I do not believe at heart that it is a review that is needed; I believe it is a change of government that is needed. I do not think a review is going to fix anything. Canberra needs a completely different recipe. Canberra needs a government which has the interests of local residents at heart and is not a bunch of people sitting in their offices scared to go out into the community. Canberra needs MLAs who are doorknocking them, who are actually out there putting their face and their body on the line, listening to what people have to say, soaking up the irritation, and going back to their offices and making it better. That is not what we see from here.
We support this motion because it highlights very real problems. But, in the end, the Greens are just as guilty of this as the Labor government. The only thing that will save the rest of Molonglo from becoming the same is a change of government next year.
MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (11.05): I reckon the new Molonglo suburbs are grouse, and while I reckon the review will also discover that the new suburbs in the Molonglo Valley are truly grouse—or words to that effect—I feel the need to speak briefly. I am
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