Government news

Read more: Public Service Offices

The ACT Government has been keeping a regular process of updates coming to the GCC about the new youth detention facility to be built at Mitchell.

This article was posted on the ABC News site on 22/4/07.

Read more: Tender awarded for new youth detention centre

Post our April meeting, the key thing that caught the interest of the Chronicle was the advice at the meeting from the LDA that they are marketing the block of land north of Magnet Mart as a business park, along the lines of the Airport's Brindabella Business Park.

Achieving this development would accommodate up to 4000 jobs - achieving this development will be a key step to securing the design target of 23,000 jobs in Gungahalin, and reducing the need to commute out every day for many residents.

Read more: GCC April Meeting

In this City News column by Michael Moore, he makes the good point that our elected members have to take tough decisions, and we have to accept that sometimes those decisions may go contrary to even majority community opinion. Sometimes even the majority are more driven by personal interest rather than long-term community good. This is the problem with politicians who are more driven by populism than what is right.

However this doesn't undermine the need for community interests to put their concerns on the table. There is nothing wrong with being the "squeaky wheel". We often assume that our politicians are on top of everything that is going on in the community but this is patently not correct. They often rely on groups like ours to bring concerns to their attention. And sometimes, it is just needed to "reorder the priorities" among the many competing demands on their plate. 

Letter to the Editor published 12th March 2007

Crispin Hall in Saturday March 10th CT argues that government cannot reduce the cost of housing because it cannot afford to alienate the electorate through engineering a reduction in house prices.

A solution to this dilemma is a variation on the shared equity proposals of Malcolm Turnbull. We leave the price of housing the same but delay the realisation of profits being made by the government on new land releases. The profits from the sale of new releases of land disappear into consolidated revenue.

Read more: Affordable Housing

This was my personal submission on the ACT Electoral Boundary Redistribution:

As a Gungahlin resident I would like to express my concern that the current electoral distribution disadvantages the Gungahlin community in an unnecessary and unfair way. The Gungahlin community is a “community of common interests” just the same as Belconnen, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong and other clearly identified communities. There is a need to identify communities of common interests as one of the main factors in establishing ACT electoral boundaries.

Read more: Electoral Boundaries

In my first interview with the Canberra Times, I asked what is being done to prevent Gungahlin becoming another dormitory township as has happened with Tuggeranong. Planning Minister said we'd have to get a critical mass of population first, like 30,000 people isn't enough?