Page 4996 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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show that. After all this neglect of Calwell, they are coming to recognise how important Calwell is. I guess there is no surprise that there is an election coming up.
The Calwell shopping centre precinct serves the suburbs of Calwell, Richardson, Theodore and Isabella Plains. Until the Lanyon Marketplace was established in the late 1990s, Calwell also served the residents of Conder, Banks and Gordon. What the community of Calwell precinct in particular have been asking for is what Mr Smyth is asking for in his motion. I am surprised that Ms Bresnan’s amendment so carefully sidesteps some of the issues the Calwell residents have been asking us to bring to the attention of the government.
The Calwell community is specifically asking their representatives in this Assembly to achieve a delay in the aged-care land release. I am sure you have that information as well, Ms Bresnan. I do not see that anywhere in your amendment, apart from some vague reference to the aged-care site where you note that the aged-care site under tender is back to back to other blocks without space being left between them for footpaths and roads. You note that, but you are ignoring the evidence that you should have seen through what has happened at Erindale that the government are not conducting consultation with the community as they should and as you know they should. As Mr Seselja pointed out, the lack of consultation and lack of planning are yet again coming to this time hit the good citizens of Calwell.
Mr Barr, we are actually trying to help you here. We are actually trying to make sure you do not make one of these offhand decisions that the government have become so used to making where, in two months, there will be an enormous community reaction to your decision. I can assure you that it will happen. There is quite an upsurge in disquiet about the lack of respect that has been shown to the community of Calwell by you wanting to just push ahead on this regardless of what the community wants. The community has indicated that they want aged care, but they want aged care that is properly planned so you have got proper access roads.
Your planning, Mr Barr, has given Calwell another headache. We have got a shopping centre that is already undergoing major problems with the car parking space that is available. What happens? All of a sudden, a road has been blocked off at the back of the Calwell shops—without much consultation with the people again—which is causing enormous safety issues where people are coming down a one-way parking area, the only place where they can find extra parking spaces. They used to be able to go around the shopping centre to get out. Now that has been blocked off because of some development that is happening at the moment at Woolworths. There has been no planning as to how all of the traffic that used to go there is going to be diverted.
Ms Bresnan, the problem is that unless we force the government to have a closer look, the same issues are going to be faced when and if the aged-care land is released. There is no proper planning process there. By your own words, the aged-care site under tender is back to back to other blocks without space being left between them for paths and roads. Is that proper planning? Do you sell it and then start putting all these plans into place? Or do you show the people who potentially want to buy this area what the plans are? How do you plan to put the roads in there? How do you give access to people to the very blocks we are talking about?
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