Page 2874 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (4.18): I very much hope the establishment of the new city to Gungahlin project office is going to be a positive step towards fixing the problems of Northbourne Avenue. As we all know, Northbourne Avenue is the most congested road in Canberra, and this leads of course to problems in the inner north with rat-running through the suburbs and also leads to considerable inconvenience for inner north residents, Gungahlin residents and even some Belconnen residents. It is such a big road that it makes an impact on all of northern Canberra. It is also of course the entrance to Canberra for most people who are coming by road.
The government has recently released costings for work on the corridor, including, as we talked about in question time earlier today, a light rail cost which is substantially more than previous estimates. We would very much like to see the new project office make public the details of those costings.
We think that this project, and hopefully the project office, is an opportunity to create a truly cosmopolitan and sustainable community along Northbourne Avenue. We want to ensure that all the new buildings are of high quality, sustainably designed and have generous communal spaces to prevent social isolation.
Housing ACT is a substantial landowner along Northbourne Avenue, and the Greens want to ensure that that level of public housing is retained in the area, noting of course that most of it is in very poor condition and the idea of redeveloping it more sustainably is certainly very attractive.
I would have to say, though, talking about public housing, that the Greens were very disappointed with the overall level of support, or lack of support, in the budget for public housing. I am confident that my colleague Ms Bresnan will be talking more about this, as Ms Hunter did briefly.
The government needs to look at public housing as a long-term investment. This includes the housing along Northbourne Avenue. A revitalised Northbourne Avenue is a key component towards creating a vibrant and sustainable Canberra that can accommodate growth while contributing to meeting the wider ACT goal of 40 per cent greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020.
The Greens also welcome some of the business and planning initiatives in the budget. We are pleased with the half a million dollars of continuing support to the Canberra business development venture capital fund, which provides some support for future diversification of the ACT economy and will assist a range of business proposals, which we hope will include future sustainable industries that the ACT needs. We welcome the raising of the threshold for payroll tax, as this will make it easier for Canberra businesses to grow.
The Greens are also very pleased to see the use of remissions of the lease variation charge as an incentive for adaptive reuse of C and D grade office stock in Civic and town centres. The Greens have long recognised the value of adapting existing buildings for a range of purposes, including for affordable residences, and we welcome government incentives for this.
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