Page 3904 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (3.56): Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise in support of the Chief Minister’s amendment and indicate, obviously, that, whilst the government do not support Mr Smyth’s motion in its original form, I do acknowledge that the issues raised in the motion are important ones. As I said to the Assembly, in responding to Ms Bresnan’s motion earlier in the year in relation to master planning for Erindale, the government are taking a very careful approach to planning in the entire Tuggeranong Valley. In Tuggeranong, as indeed in the rest of the ACT, we are looking to make our city more ecologically and more economically sustainable. But, whilst we are looking forward, Mr Assistant Speaker, there are indeed a number of legacy issues we need to deal with, which do impact on how we go about achieving these goals.
Members will recall from earlier debates that I have outlined the way Tuggeranong was developed when it was originally planned. Mr Smyth touched on some of this in his speech. Clearly, the thinking about the development of our cities was quite different back then. At that time, the key influence on the urban form was transport, particularly the car, and creating an efficient city structure that enabled easy movement between Canberra’s various centres. Since then, I think it is fair to say, there has been a significant evolution in thinking and, with the realisation that cities of the future face challenges around energy and water, particularly due to climate change, planners are now seeking to build adaptable cities. This means a reduced ecological footprint, less resource use, and most importantly, the ability to cope with change into the future.
This means, clearly, that our community must also adapt. We must be thinking about how we live and the sort of city that we live in. We must plan for a population that is changing and moving—and that is particularly relevant in the context of Kambah. When I lived in Kambah in the early 1980s, it was a very different suburb than it is in 2010. We need to accept that there is a need for higher levels of housing and urban density, that the quarter-acre block can no longer be the only form of housing, that this is no longer sustainable.
And so, mindful of this, at the last election ACT Labor committed to invest in planning studies and master plans for the Tuggeranong town centre. That work is currently being done, and the master plan process will provide a sound basis for future decision making. It will provide a wide angle snapshot, if you like, of the Tuggeranong town centre’s infrastructure capacity.
Mr Assistant Speaker, the government has invested heavily in a number of significant master planning projects over the past two years. These have focused on areas where emerging issues and changing demographics have required a refocus from a planning perspective on particular areas of the territory. Members would be aware that the Gungahlin town centre master plan is nearing completion and that master planning for the Dickson and Kingston group centres has undergone comprehensive community consultation and is at a stage where consultation reports will soon be released for further public comment.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video