Page 5204 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 29 November 2017

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This provides the opportunity for our town centres to densify or provide more diversity and bring on the process of regeneration. Northbourne is the testament to Canberra’s change for the better, making Civic and Braddon attractive places to live, work and visit, leading to a surge in the number of people wanting to live close to the city centre. Take a trip along Northbourne Avenue, which light rail will soon be servicing: every block is seeing new and exciting developments going up to cater for our growing population.

This is not just restricted to the city. In Woden, where light rail stage 2 is coming, we have already seen the beginning of this process of regeneration. Just over the last few weeks we have seen announcements about the repurposing of the Alexander and Albemarle buildings into residential. These were long a symbol of Woden’s struggle with a declining public service—particularly the federal public service—and it is great to hear the announcement that they will be adaptively re-used.

It was also pleasing to see new announcements about the proposed development of the former Tradies site, with a mixed use development called WOVA, and the Zapari Group’s proposed public transport oriented development next to the Woden bus interchange, which of course will be transformed as a future terminus for light rail stage 2. There are other developments under construction as well.

They represent new investment and confidence in our city, and we are seeing that confidence across not just Woden but everywhere, in Belconnen, Gungahlin and Tuggeranong—developments that will be backed up by an integrated public transport network that will help to cater for the growth of our city and our population, as well as encouraging more people to visit our growing city and see our fantastic national attractions.

Perhaps it is quite fitting that we refer to ourselves as the nation’s cool little capital, because that is what we are. I know that many opposite would like to see us go back to the old days, to a city that shuts at 5 pm, where the only traffic in Garema Place is the cars that they want to bring back, and where getting around in a car is the only viable option in this city. But I look at the city that we live in today: a city that tops the nation in key economic performance indicators, a city that is progressive and inclusive, creating a welcoming environment for all who come here, a city that is attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. We live in a city that is growing, and a city that is increasingly becoming confident in its future.

I thank Mr Pettersson for bringing this motion before us. I am proud to advocate on behalf of our city and continue to speak it up. We should embrace our city and continue to make our city an even better place in which to live.

MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (10.23): I stand today to respond to Mr Pettersson’s motion. I have to admit that I have not developed the habit of speaking to such motions. In fact, after a year in this Assembly, I have grown rather accustomed to the regular appearance of motions from the Labor backbench that call on the rest of us to agree with them—despite all the evidence to the contrary—that the current


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