For a brief history of the Giralang shops saga, you can visit the Giralang Residents Action Group website.

Giralang used to have local shops.  Over a decade ago, the shops begun to close, until finally they were all gone.  The shops sat derelict for some time, until the site owner and developer begun the rebuilding process.  A few rejected development applications later, and one was approved.  It was set aside by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal 5 months later.  A fourth development application was submitted and again approved (this time using call-in powers).

What happened next ties up the development application in legal red tape for 5 years, until expired, and then the case was finally heard and ruled against the complainants. That is to say, the 5 year delay should never have happened.

What happened to the Giralang community shouldn’t have happened to them.  It also shouldn’t happen to anyone else in the future.  The solution to this problem must include the lessons learned, and fixes to the flaws in the system that allowed this to happen.

Law’s and measures should always consider the bigger picture, and I will need to seek further advice on this, however I propose that a failed court action should pause the life of a development application.  If we remove this mechanism to essentially veto a development application, it is possible that this would never have gone as far as it did, and the shops might even be open today.

Public transport connects people who need it the most.  Students wanting to get to recreation or work, seniors wanting to do the grocery shopping, single parents wanting to visit their families.  Many of us have our own cars – usually two per family – but those who don’t rely on public transport to live their lives.  Both the major parties are promising to heavily invest in public transport this election, so obviously everyone agrees it is important.

Hall does not have access to public transport.  There are services that address some of the population, but there is not a single ACTION bus service that goes to Hall.  Services travel to Gold Creek Village only 3km away, but Hall is neglected.  The nature of Hall means that they are not going to fill services regularly, but there is a demand there which we should at least try to meet.  One repeated comment was that Hall residents often wanted to travel for entertainment like taking in dinner and a movie or lunch and a show, but public transport being unavailable was the key reason they couldn’t go.

Lack of public transport also has ramifications on employment choices for Hall residents, but also Hall businesses looking to hire staff from the rest of Gungahlin.

The Greens have said they believe that everyone should have access to affordable, convenient public transport.  They have said they “won’t stop until every Canberran has the best quality public transport”.  Unfortunately for Hall, the focus has been on Light Rail.  A simple solution exists for Hall – get a bus there now.  Even starting with a shuttle bus between Hall and Gold Creek, Casey, or Gungahlin Marketplace to measure the patronage would be a good start.

Our local sporting clubs are an important part of our community. We have clubs playing a huge variety of sports including Cricket, Netball, Baseball, various codes of Football, and many more.  We have to make sure these clubs are supported so that they can continue giving back to the community.

Our Rugby Union club, the Gungahlin Eagles, are turning their long standing “charity round” in to “charity of the year”.  This year they raised $10,000 for the Cancer Council ACT, and next year they hope to give back even more.  It’s important that we empower our clubs as they not only provide health and social benefits to their members, but also give back to the wider community.

These clubs support a diverse range of competitions, including men’s, women’s, juniors and seniors divisions.  There is something for everyone here.  If you want to get involved, you can find contact details for many of these on the My Gungahlin directory for sports.

The grounds at Gungahlin Enclosed Oval are good, though scheduling and maintenance has to be planned properly to ensure the best quality surface for our teams to play on week in and week out.  Our suburban fields are also important for community sports, and need to be adequately maintained, and in some cases, upgraded.   I also support developing playing fields on the land in Throsby zoned for community use.

While all our sports groups are doing amazing things in the community, I’d like to give a shout out to two in particular that share roots with my old college, Daramalan.  Gungahlin Eagles Rugby Club and North Canberra Gungahlin Cricket Club both have a history with Daramalan, and both still have the eagle logo.  While the footy is wrapping up for the season, North Canberra Gungahlin Cricket Club are just beginning their season this weekend – why not get out and watch the trial matches or their upcoming 1-day matches?

This morning I had the opportunity to talk to Tim Shaw on 2CC about my call to limit roadside election material.  Let me repeat that I am glad we live in a country where we can freely express our political opinions. We are free to challenge our government, and one of the ways we do this is with roadside signs. That said, I agree with the community outcry that it has gone too far.

Independent for Ginninderra Kim Huynh recently wrote on the RiotACT on the science and art of election signs, and asked how we could improve the quality of our political signs, and politics in general.  I think we can improve the quality by reducing the quantity.

Roadside election posters – spam or democracy?

A vocal part of the community has spoken, and they say that the current situation is an eyesore.  It is wasteful. It is uninformative. There are calls for a total ban.  Such a ban would likely be overturned federally as undemocratic, though regulation is within our reach.

Let’s say that just the 50 candidates from the 2 major parties have on average 400 signs.  I’d suggest the number is much higher, but let’s go with that.  At $5 per sign, the major parties are spending $100,000 on roadside spam which is reimbursed with public funding.  The Greens are the next worst offenders, usually followed by minor parties and trailed by independents.  Most of the minor parties and independents won’t receive electoral funding for their signs.

Could we reduce the campaign spending cap by say, $1,500 per candidate and redirect around $80,000 to an online resource along the lines of what the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy has compiled for each electorate?  As a group independent from the government, they do a great job of impartially presenting the facts, and I’d like to see them better able to provide this function.

Election signs have a place.  In Yass for example, that place is private property and near polling stations – not on public land along the roads.  That works for them, but would it work for the ACT?  I think that would benefit the incumbents from the major parties at the expense of their own new candidates, as well as minor parties and independents.  I don’t think this is the answer for the ACT.

Instead, I propose a rate limit on signs from any given candidate.  With most electorates having around 25-30 candidates, and at one sign every 10 meters in the premium locations, we could limit each candidate to 1 sign per 300m.  We could go further and say one sign per candidate per road (or road segment for very long roads), or some other designated zones.

Fewer signs would also allow the better enforcement of current regulations.  If you see a sign too close to an intersection (20 metres) for example, you can report it on Fix My Street.  Use the category of “Election Campaign Signage”.

Have voters made up their mind?

Tim asked me what I would say to the estimated 80% or more of voters who have already made up their mind.  To those people I would say consider a crossbench! To borrow a phrase, a crossbench keeps the bastards honest.  A crossbench can hold both the government and the opposition to a higher standard.  If you live in Yerrabi, it’s easy – vote [1] David Pollard!  If you live outside of Yerrabi, check out your independents and minor parties and consider giving them your number 1 and 2 votes.

The areas shaded in purple currently have FTTH (Fibre to the Home) NBN.  The unshaded areas have been downgraded to FTTN (Fibre to the Node), expected to be ready for service in late 2017.

Source: http://www.nbnco.com.au/learn-about-the-nbn/rollout-map.html

There is an NBNCo program called the Technology Choice Program. Under this, individual premises or areas can apply and pay to “change” (read: upgrade) their access technology back to what Casey was originally promised, Fibre to the Home (FTTH).

I have been running a petition to gauge interest in Casey stage 1 to perform this area switch. It’s a physical petition, so catch me at one of my shops visits to sign if you are interested.

Without obligation to Casey residents, I will be initiating the area switch process on behalf of Casey stage 1 shortly in order to get a better understanding of the cost involved. Normally, this process would be initiated by “incorporated associations, bodies corporate of MDUs, local government authorities and state government bodies”. Unfortunately, state (and federal for that matter) government has washed their hands of this matter.

Please follow my Facebook page for updates. It’s not a quick process, but I see this as a test case. I think Canberra could profit heavily from rolling out world leading broadband infrastructure, and I’d like to see it go further. If it works in the forgotten stage 1 of Casey, I’d like to move on to Kaleen, Giralang, McKellar and Evatt, and from there, the rest of Canberra! Dream big!