Page 3094 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .


particularly affected Gungahlin. It is pretty poorly serviced generally in terms of getting into the city from Gungahlin in comparison with a lot of other parts of the ACT, and that continues to be an issue.

A constituent raised concerns about education. They felt that they had to move their teenage sons to St Edmund’s from the Amaroo school. They felt that they had no other choice, for various reasons. I want to put it on the record on their behalf that they felt that their sons were not getting the kind of discipline that they needed and they took their kids to St Edmund’s instead.

The lack of service station facilities in the area continues to be a strong area of feedback, as well as the lack of the promised pool that Gungahlin residents have been waiting for for some time. That has been a consistent source of angst for Gungahlin residents.

Another area of concern is parking. Parking on the weekends is becoming a bit of an issue in the Gungahlin town centre. The traffic management there is not particularly well laid out, especially, I think it must be said, at the intersection near the Raiders Club and the exit from the car park. During the week it is not too bad.

But the bigger concern of Gungahlin residents, because they are so car dependent, is the lack of available parking in the city. So many Gungahlin residents, because of the poor public transport links, do rely on their motor vehicles to get to work, and those who work in the City are finding it harder and harder to find a park. This has been an area of feedback that I have had about all parts of Canberra, but Civic, in particular, and Woden are the real hotspots. It is a real concern. It really affects family life when one is unable to find a car park in close walking distance from the workplace. It adds to the commuting time of families. There are safety issues after hours for some people who have to walk a fair way from their office.

These issues are consistently raised with me. I think it is important that we respond to these concerns, in particular this squeeze on car parking that we have seen in recent times, which is part of the government’s deliberate policy, really, to limit the amount of available car parks. So that was a real issue. They were some of the main issues that were fed back to me at the Gungahlin shopping centre stall. I would like once more to put those concerns of the Gungahlin community on the record.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

The Assembly adjourned at 6.22 pm.


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .