Catherine Carter |
Monday, 20 July 2009 12:01 AM |
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We’re now well into the 21st century and it’s high time stpes are taken to ensure that Australia’s capital will never again be seen as a “cemetery with lights” or the “ruin of a good sheep station”.
These were the sorts of comments Sir Robert Menzies faced when he took power in 1949 and, even today, they are not far from the view held by many Australians.
In a recent ABC radio interview, Professor George Williamson called for a vision for our capital. He said party policy has so far lacked the ambition to drive the next stage in Canberra’s development.
Our city is more than just a place that employs politicians and public servants. It is the symbol and heart of our nation, but to maintain that position with credibility and honour, it must embody the best our nation has to offer. Canberra should be a city for all Australians, not just those who live here.
That is more than a job for our local government. It needs federal commitment, too.
It is unfair to expect local taxpayers to carry the expense of providing infrastructure, just as vital to the national parliamentary sector and those offices which support it, as it is to the local residents. And it is also impractical to expect local politicians, elected to represent their local constituents, to also make decisions that benefit the nation, sometimes to the exclusion of local interests.
A vision for Canberra means creating a clear picture of what we want our capital to be in future, to clearly define what we want to achieve towards that vision at target dates, to quantify and qualify fuzzy, but comforting, goals, transforming them into defined, reachable targets.
We need to know what our ideal population will be by a given date (that needs demographic targets). We need to know where people will live and work (that needs land-use planning). We need to know how we will be educating them, caring for their health, providing them with transport options (that needs infrastructure planning).
Right now, there is an opportunity for the Rudd Government to work with the ACT to recapture the vision held by Prime Ministers Chifley and Menzies of a great capital for Australia.
Catherine Carter |
Monday, 20 July 2009 12:01 AM |
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