Page 1299 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 2021
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We often hear people hail Canberra’s lifestyle virtues because everything is only 15 minutes away; so you are not stuck in your car and you can get to places easily. That might be the case for many Canberrans but not so for the residents of Gungahlin who trek for miles to their places of work because there is so little employment in town.
I draw attention to a few recent comments in the media by the Greens MLA for Yerrabi, Andrew Braddock, who has brought this motion today. Mr Braddock has said, “Locals have told me they want green spaces, employment opportunities, community gardens, better retail opportunities and community spaces.” He has said he wants to give the community a real say in how their town centre develops and he wants their voices to be heard in a meaningful way. As do I.
I find this staggering because this year marks two decades since Labor has ruled the ACT, largely with support from the Greens. So you cannot help but wonder why this Labor-Greens government has for the last 20 years neglected Gungahlin to such an extent that residents are in revolt. After years of lobbying successive Labor-Greens governments for sensible planning to bring vibrancy and jobs to the place that they call home, Gungahlin locals, through the Gungahlin Community Council, have had enough.
Consider again Mr Braddock’s remarks. He talks about residents’ pleas for green spaces, community gardens, for a say in how their town centre develops. This is politics 101, is it not, for the Greens? Is this not in the Greens’ DNA: green spaces, community gardens, sensible planning?
As I said, this year marks two decades since Labor has ruled the ACT, largely with support from the Greens, and our Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, has been at the helm for seven years, since 2014. It is worth noting that ACT Labor has had one of the longest unbroken runs of any state or territory government and its sixth election victory last year means that it will have been in power for 23 years by the time of the next election in 2024.
Interestingly, that is the same length of time that the coalition was in office federally until Gough Whitlam’s “It’s time” 1972 election win. Given the “It’s time” slogan was such a success for Gough, whose victory on 2 December 1972 marked a historic turning point in Australian political history, perhaps we can adopt the same mantra in this place and say it is time that the Labor-Greens government took seriously the people of my electorate, Yerrabi.
If you want further proof that Yerrabi gets dudded by this government time and again, look at the executive, the line-up of ministers and where they hail from. I have said it before and I will say it again. It is Chief Minister Barr who chooses his ministers and what electorates they represent, and Mr Barr has selected ministers from every electorate except Yerrabi. What a surprise that Yerrabi is ignored. What a surprise that Yerrabi is neglected. What a surprise that government backbenchers like Mr Braddock need to bring motions calling on ministers to pay attention to the area that he endeavours to represent.
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