Page 2771 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 August 2015
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This again is a saga of the ACT government over-promising and under-delivering. As Mr Coe pointed out, in the last election we saw the Chief Minister at the time, Ms Gallagher, and Ms Berry and Ms Porter, turning up to over-promise for Evatt, to commit that within a year of the successful election of an ACT Gallagher government the Evatt shops would be upgraded. I was involved, as many residents were, in the consultation on the upgrade of the Evatt shops. Not only have they over-promised and under-delivered in relation to the timing, but the officials and the government have over-promised and under-delivered in relation to what is actually going to come about.
I was involved in this consultation. I spent a couple of useful mornings going from shopping centre to shopping centre as representatives of TAMS conducted consultations at Evatt and then at Florey. The officials pointed out to me all the things that were wrong with the Evatt shops that could be fixed in an upgrade. Then we went to the Florey shops and they pointed out again all the things that were wrong. They talked to the traders; the traders talked to them and gave them their ideas.
What have we got? The last briefing I received in relation to the Florey and Evatt shops was that for the Florey shops there would be about $80,000 worth of concrete to fix some grade issues for wheelchair access from particular roads. That is important, but does not address important issues like the discontinuity in the footpaths outside the shops, where there are quite dangerous steps for people that might have low vision. These issues are not being addressed.
When I asked in the briefing, “What are you doing about this discontinuity?” I heard for the first time an official who came specifically to give me a briefing about the upgrade to the Evatt and Florey shops say, “Oh, Madam Speaker, I am not familiar with this site.” So I received a briefing from someone who was supposedly an expert who had not visited the site.
I asked a number of questions about the upgrade. With things that were discussed openly at the public consultation that the traders asked for, I asked, “Are these things going to be included? “Oh, no. We are just going to fix the easement, add a disabled car park and make sure that the disabled car parking spaces are up to the modern standard.” It was much less than was promised or foreshadowed at the consultation. I made the point to the officials that both at the Evatt shops and at the Florey shops they did not lower people’s expectations; they raised them. They did not say, “We are here to get your views about whether we need to fix up the pram ramps and whether we need to make a particular path grade-appropriate for wheelchairs.” They came there asking for views for major upgrades. They over-promised and they under-delivered.
This is the story of this government in relation to shop upgrades across my electorate. During the last budget—not this budget we are debating today, but the one we debated this time last year—Dr Bourke extolled the shop upgrades program because it would deliver money for Cook. We are still waiting for it. The money that was promised in the last budget for Cook has not yet seen the light of day. The new toilet had already been built before there was a commitment in the last budget supposedly for Cook. Dr Bourke promised that there would be a shop upgrade for Cook last year. It has not, to this day, happened.
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