Page 4378 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 30 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Fundamentally, local areas or neighbourhoods have seen the development of Canberra society. We have seen the development of the National Capital Plan and the local Territory Plan. This has been the subject of much debate and discussion. Quite obviously, in response to a number of the observations made by Mr Lansdown in his report, the Government has taken up the issue of local area planning. I suppose that you could really read into that that you would need to address all of the issues covered by Ms Szuty. We are talking about the infrastructure within that local neighbourhood as much as we are talking about the built form, or the concept or structure of the built form within that local area.
What I have done as Minister, with the endorsement of the Government, is establish a range of precinct management groups which ultimately will extend across all of the suburban form in the ACT as far as shopping centres are concerned. (Quorum formed) As Minister, I have taken a keen interest in the issues associated with the development of our neighbourhoods and the provision of infrastructure. The development of a precinct management model, which is aimed at improving the urban amenity of our shopping precincts as part of the neighbourhood, in fact includes the neighbourhood in that process. Consultative arrangements were determined by, as an example, the O'Connor precinct management group elected following a series of public meetings of O'Connor residents as well as shop owners and landlords in the O'Connor precinct. They have demonstrated quite clearly that it is a very effective way to ensure involvement in the rejuvenation of that shopping facility. It has also addressed a range of issues which fall outside the narrow confines of the shopping centre and relate to the public open spaces and green spaces around that centre as well as some of the traffic management issues associated with through traffic and traffic arrangements within O'Connor. That has now been extended to Narrabundah and also to Hughes. It will ultimately be extended to Watson, as far as its rejuvenation is concerned, and then throughout the remainder of Canberra.
This is a process by which this Government quite clearly involves the community in establishing the neighbourliness of neighbours, if you like, and encourages the reaffirmation of the great commitment that has been built up in the ACT, this feeling that we are part of a local community. This, in a lot of older cities, comes as a matter of course as those cities have developed over a century or more. Within the ACT it must be understood that the greater bulk of the urban form has been developed only over the last decade and a half. I read with interest just recently an excellent publication put out by the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning which gives the history of street names and the development of suburbs in the ACT. That is a magnificent publication that gives you a quite clear appreciation of how Canberra's neighbourhoods, its local suburbs, have developed. What we need to do, and what this Government is committed to doing, is ensure that we continue the development of that local identity, but, in doing so, not detract from the position that we are Canberrans and that we have a wider urban fabric than just an immediate neighbourhood.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .