Page 823 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 27 February 2013
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In recent initiatives for the Tuggeranong community, the government is proud of the services that are provided to the Tuggeranong community, including south Tuggeranong. We strive to make improvements, but I am confident that the community needs study will also point to many improvements that the government has undertaken.
For example, the use of library services that we discussed here today in Tuggeranong is now very high. There are currently two library branches in the Tuggeranong valley, at Erindale and the Tuggeranong town centre, with 42,541 registered borrowers in the Tuggeranong valley for the approximately 90,000 residents of the valley, with the two libraries open for 99 hours a week—over 14 hours per day on average.
The mobile library makes regular fortnightly visits to local areas in Tuggeranong, including the Goodwin village aged care facility at Monash, the Lanyon Marketplace at Conder, and Tharwa outside the preschool. The home library has 31 registered members in the Tuggeranong valley who receive a delivery of books, DVDs, magazines and audio books every four weeks. The Read Around Canberra private reading group program provides multiple copies of special titles to 21 groups who collect their titles from either Tuggeranong or the Erindale library.
And the government has made substantial contribution to housing in the Lanyon valley. In April 2011, 52 units were opened at a complex in Conder which provide accommodation for older public housing tenants. The complex, which cost $10.3 million to construct, has provided new homes to public housing tenants while at the same time freeing up larger properties to house people more quickly. The properties are owned and managed by Argyle, a community housing provider that manages almost 2,000 properties across New South Wales. Argyle’s entry into the ACT supported the ACT government’s objectives of growing the territory’s community housing sector while continuing to provide the rebate rent to persons on low incomes.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I have a lot more to say in this speech, but I realise that we are—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will just consult with members. Mr Gentleman has only 4½ minutes to go. Are people happy for him to finish? Then we will go to lunch.
Mr Doszpot: Let him finish.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, you can finish, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker and members. I will continue. Down in the Lanyon valley we have also the YWCA Mura Lanyon Youth and Community Centre, which I think we have all visited. It has recently undergone a $1.5 million refurbishment funded by the ACT government. It was reopened in August 2012 by Minister Burch. The YWCA has recently opened a food co-op at the Mura centre which sources food from donations from Woolworths and the Yellow
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