Page 5517 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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35 kilometres from the city and it is a really long commute. I have a friend in Gordon. If I need to go and visit her, it takes three-quarters of an hour for me to drive from my place to her place. Unfortunately, there is a really poor public transport system. Many residents find they have no alternative but to have a car for each adult in the house or else spend a huge amount of time waiting for buses.
It took 20 years, unfortunately, for Tuggeranong town centre to get some life. It really did not happen much until the Centrelink building was built and the apartments were added. These were both great additions and I would really like to see something like that happen in Gungahlin. We need local employment to base a town centre on. Tuggeranong is fortunate that it has got that. In terms of looking at a more thoughtful approach to planning, I would like to see a thoughtful approach to location of employment and locate some in Gungahlin.
Going briefly through some of the points in Ms Bresnan’s motion, as I said, I am pleased to see the support for town planning and master planning. I note it was part of the Greens’ agreement with the Labor Party for more master planning and neighbourhood planning. I totally agree with the benefits of integrating transport and urban development planning, as I am sure you do, Madam Deputy Speaker. You currently chair the planning committee. We are having an inquiry into aspects of inner north development, where the integration of planning and transport is clearly a major issue. I note that in the ACT 25 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions comes from the transport system. It is really important to locate everything so that we minimise our transport emissions and maximise the usefulness, amenity, convenience and safety of our transport. The other 75 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, unfortunately, comes from buildings.
We have spoken quite a bit about point (c) in Ms Bresnan’s motion concerning transport services in the Tuggeranong Valley, particularly the park and ride facilities at Erindale. That brings me to the Erindale group centre. Erindale is in the centre of Tuggeranong, unlike the Tuggeranong town centre. We have already spoken at great length about the restaurants et cetera. As a north-side resident, I will not attempt to compete with Mr Smyth’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Erindale.
There are clearly issues with transport and parking in Erindale. We support the idea of a park and ride facility there, or possibly a bus interchange, but we think that serious planning is going to be needed to do something like this. It was not planned there originally and it is not entirely clear how this will happen. The idea is great and we want to see the government do the work to make it happen in a way which will work for Erindale as a thriving shopping centre and for the residents of Tuggeranong as a whole.
In paragraph (2) of the motion Ms Bresnan calls on the ACT government to take a more thoughtful approach to planning for the whole Tuggeranong Valley. I have to second, third, fourth—whatever number—that comment. I have already noted the location of the Tuggeranong town centre as the most outstanding example of thoughtful planning in Tuggeranong! But there are a lot of others.
Tuggeranong, as I mentioned, has some wonderful views, but they tend to be to the west of people’s houses. Tuggeranong has an unfortunately large number of houses
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