Page 3097 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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I think that is amazingly succinctly put by people in the community who have missed out. So we have heard from businesses who have been treated poorly because of the way this has been handled and now we hear from members of the community who are looking to take up the scheme who, again, were given assurances from the minister, given indications from the minister, that it was all going to be okay.
That goes to the heart of it. Of course they say they “take back our below statements”, because they had sent a very congratulatory email to Mr Corbell earlier, commending him for his work, and saying just how impressed they were with him. Of course, they were sadly let down. I repeat part of the email:
If you are responsible for managing a cap, good management means you keep your eye on the ball and progressively see how it is developing so you can report back to your community where it is up to. Clearly your office dropped the ball on that one.
I think that that very succinctly sums up just how badly this has been handled. It is another example—and I received that just this evening—of when you manage these things badly and many people get disaffected, whether it is people looking to take up the scheme or whether it is people in the industries, and that is why we had a situation where we had to fix the mess.
In summary on that, I think there are still some ongoing issues. The point that is made by the individuals there is a good one, because now the minister is going to have that same task—to manage it and keep his eye on the ball. We have put in some legislation that will hopefully help that to be a more transparent process and will encourage the minister and force the minister to be more open. But it is time for the minister to actually back that up.
Coming back to the blow-out in regard to the north Weston pond, I reiterate that I think it would be very useful if we could have some statements from ministers, particularly the planning minister, very soon, showing what new direction there is going to be in the delivery of projects so that Canberrans do not have to continue to pay for the very wasteful blow-outs that we have seen over many years, particularly under the leadership of Simon Corbell.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (9.58): I will make some brief comments on this directorate in relation to two particular areas. The first is transport planning, which is a new and specific portfolio responsibility under this directorate. I spoke at some length about transport on Tuesday during the discussions on the TAMS portfolio. At that time, I noted some of the encouraging signs in the budget in terms of transport planning, including various items that the Greens have discussed with the government, particularly leading up to the budget, and other initiatives which included items such as the design of Adelaide Avenue bus stops, new bus interchanges and various extensions of the bus network.
I want to emphasise again what a critical area transport planning is for our city. The impacts of our transportation system on our city and the environment are wide-ranging. They are not just environmental; they are also social and economic.
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