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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3739 ..

city and a range of suburban parks, films at twilight on the big screen in Garema Place, skateboard events and older peoples parties.

Considerable work has also been undertaken on the western edge of the city to restore the fire-damaged landscape. That is a significant achievement, given the extremely dry weather conditions we have experienced. During 2003-04 the government consulted with the community and replaced approximately 8,000 fire-affected plants, including 1,600 trees. This has restored most of the parklands and major road verges in Weston Creek, Woden and Tuggeranong.

Planning for the replacement of burnt street trees on residential verges has commenced, with the consultation of residents almost complete. Shrubs have been planted at the majority of fire-affected sites. To assist residents re-establish their own gardens, fire-affected households have been offered plants under the plant issue scheme. To date just on 500 residents have taken up that offer.

The garden regeneration project, a strong government and community partnership, has also been highly successful in supporting people’s recovery from the bushfires through re-establishment of their fire-affected gardens. To date, volunteer helpers have replanted 200 fire-affected gardens at gardens days organised through this project. All fire-affected suburbs have had burnt municipal assets replaced, including playgrounds, street signs, regulatory and warning signs, guard rails, guideposts, log barriers and bollards, bridges and line marking. Extensive weed control programs have been undertaken and fire hazard reduction works have reduced fuel loadings.

So, the government has been very active, and it has been extra active in the last 18 months as we have also additional work to do in those fire-damaged areas. The city looks fine, Mr Speaker. If you walk from here down through the city, you will see the new paving and the new work being done—much of it, I might say, a continuation of what the former government was doing. That work continues. Civic looks fine.

The street cleaners are out there every morning. After a Saturday night it can be fairly messy at two or three in the morning, but by the time people come to work that same day, the place is looking spick and span. I pay credit to all those workers in CUP and CityScape, and the other people we hire to keep the city looking great. They are out there constantly working and doing everything they can. I think it is unfortunate that we are getting claims here today that it looks like a Third World country.

The place is respected by all its citizens and by the people in our departments who work to maintain the city. They respect it, they like the city and I would pay credit to them for the fine look of this city.

MS TUCKER (4.51): Mr Cornwell’s matter of public important is an interesting subject. I notice he mentioned all his pet hates at the beginning. We ranged from asylum seekers, which he calls illegal immigrants, to the war in Iraq and bike paths taking up important road space. Basically he seems to be concerned that Canberra is looking untidy. My view of his comments is that he rather exaggerated the situation, but I am happy to join in the conversation about the urban environment and the look of our city. More particularly I am interested in talking about the way we are underpinning our city with social and cultural planning.

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