Page 1421 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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transformation for our city and will invigorate a whole lot of private sector development as well. All of these factors are taken into account. The comments about, “A bunch of money has been spent but we haven’t seen tracks yet,” are just laughable. Of course the money must be spent on the development process. The latest one is, “We’ve spent $1 million and we don’t have any tracks.” Well, of course we do not.
I have spoken previously in this chamber about the fact that the Liberal Party in Western Australia is developing light rail. The Liberal government in Western Australia is undertaking a very similar process where there is an amount of time where you have to spend money on development and design of these projects. That is perfectly normal with this kind of project development. It is also perfectly normal not to have an absolutely locked down cost at this point. The report that came out in September last year—which is publicly available as we have discussed in this place before—gives the current best estimate, so we have an indication. Now further development needs to be done.
Whilst giving the best impression of a kid at Christmas who cannot wait to open his presents, Mr Coe will come to realise that further work is to be done as this information becomes more and more available. As we discussed in response to his motion in February, I think it was, on the private members’ day when he sought a series of documents, quite a lot of the information is already publicly available and there is a commitment from government to be transparent. As more of this information becomes available it will be made available to the public. It is a matter of simply acknowledging that these things take some time.
In conclusion, I thank Ms Porter for bringing this motion forward today. As I said at the outset, I am happy to support it as I think it notes a series of issues that many in the community would agree with—that is, it is important to have this long-term vision; it is important to engage with the community; and we need to keep moving forward as this city grows and changes.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (11.58): This week I announced the naming of Marion Mahony Griffin view from Mount Ainslie in honour of the exceptional vision and talent of a woman who gave so much to our beautiful city, a woman whose talent and foresight created an outstanding rendering of her partner Walter’s plan for our new city.
Walter Burley Griffin’s plan for Canberra gave life to the vision of the fathers of Federation for a beautiful new city that encapsulated the ideals of a young, democratic and egalitarian nation. One hundred years later, we have the opportunity to revisit the role of the city and shape our future.
In laying out this plan for consultation, we want to inspire, we want to challenge and we want to lead. We want to be ambitious for our city’s future. We want to stimulate new ideas, new possibilities and new directions.
Our city is exceptional. Under the government I lead, we intend to ensure that we continue to build and create an exceptional city—something unique, forward-looking and an ongoing source of inspiration to other cities around the country and the world.
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