Page 1797 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 May 2013

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Thursday, 9 May 2013

MADAM SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

Canberra—centenary

Ministerial statement

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (10.00): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement concerning the centenary evaluations.

Leave granted.

MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am pleased to provide the Assembly with an update of how the centenary of Canberra celebrations are progressing, now that we are a third of the way through the year.

In the first 130 days of the centenary year, we have seen an enormous array of events and, following the survey I released last week, we are in a position to take stock of the many great successes and also some lessons learnt.

At the outset of the centenary project, six goals were established: increasing the pride and ownership of Australians in their capital; fully engaging the community of Canberra, the capital region and the broader Australian community in the celebrations; establishing enduring international recognition of Canberra and its role as the capital; building the positive image and reputation of Canberra as a city and community; building lasting legacies of community value through memorable celebrations and high-quality projects; and creating impetus for future development of the national capital.

These are the goals that guided the development of the centenary program, and they provide the framework for our approach to monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

Despite the very positive anecdotal evidence about the centenary year so far, the government is making sure we can evaluate the program through impartial quantitative measures and ensure that the community is getting good value for money.

As part of the evaluation framework a number of surveys have been commissioned to draw out the community sentiment towards the centenary program, and specifically towards some of the key events.

Last week I released the results of a survey conducted by Winton Sustainable Research Strategies. It showed that more than three in four Canberrans—270,000 people—have participated in at least one centenary event this year and that 79 per cent were satisfied with the experience.

In a Canberra Times poll that closed on Tuesday, 85 per cent of respondents said they thought the centenary celebrations had been great so far.


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