Page 4855 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
tree is dead and who would be allowed a say in confirming its death, and yet we remove 800 live trees in a matter of weeks, all by stealth in the middle of the night.
My constituents, and in fact anyone on the north side of Canberra, have had to stay very alert to the myriad of temporary signage to work out what road is open, what lane is closed and what intersection is still there. And I can say from personal experience that when I was living in Braddon and needed to access Ipima Street daily I never knew when it would be open or closed, and this happened on a number of occasions. When my constituents also lost the very established Dickson shopfront and the Dickson motor registry, where they registered their car, changed their licence plates and their children got their learners permits and undertook their driving tests, they were entitled to say that enough is enough.
This motion came about because of the number of constituents approaching me to say that, whilst more services being made available in areas like Gungahlin, with its growing population, is understandable, what they could not understand was that they might not be getting increased services but surely they were entitled to at least keep the services that they currently had access to. I am pleased that the Minister for Regulatory Services has recognised that the changes introduced to Access Canberra shopfronts have caused some issues, and I thank the minister and his staff for their cooperation and willingness to work with me to achieve a better outcome for all Canberrans, which is reflected by the tripartisan support for my motion.
As my motion outlines, there is considerable disruption for Canberra residents with the changes to Access Canberra shopfronts. There are currently nine Access Canberra shopfronts operating across the city. Of the nine, four—Tuggeranong, Woden, Belconnen and Gungahlin—operate a full suite of services, with the other five very narrow and limited in their speciality. They vary in services, in opening times and in capacity to take different payment methods and, without access to a computer, I am not entirely sure how someone knows which one they need to attend, what services they offer and when and how they should pay for the service they need.
The Access Canberra website is very detailed and provides a great deal of information; that is, if you are able to access a computer. Even in today’s modern technology embracing environment there are many Canberrans who do not use a computer, who do not use online services and who do not wish to use credit cards. Many of these Canberrans live in Kurrajong. I would hope that Minister Ramsay, wearing his other hat as minister for seniors, would also be very much aware of the needs of older Canberrans who may prefer face-to-face, over-the-counter service and who may prefer to pay by cash or cheque instead of by card.
The Canberrans who are able to access the Access Canberra website would learn, for example, that Belconnen, one of the larger centres, opens Monday to Friday from 9 to 5, offers a range of approximately 250 services and will take EFTPOS, credit card, cash and cheque. Tuggeranong—in your neck of the woods, Madam Speaker—another of the larger centres, offers the same range but has even better opening hours, Monday to Friday from 8 to 5.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video