Update 20 August: Added comments from ACT Greens.
ACT Labor has promised more renewal in Tuggeranong: its $20 million package would include “better parks and playgrounds; more housing and health centres; upgraded schools and shops; new bus services and sports facilities”.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the package is based on community feedback about issues they want prioritised in the short-term. In the last five months, Mr Barr said, Labor candidates have had nearly 20,000 conversations with the local community, “listening to the issues that have been raised and responding through this plan”.
ACT Labor’s package includes:
Health: Opening the South Tuggeranong Health Centre in Conder, including a diabetes clinic, and pathology and child health services. Expanding services at Tuggeranong Walk-in Centre. Hiring more nurses and health workers in Tuggeranong. Opening a new Hydrotherapy pool in the Tuggeranong Town Centre to help people with chronic pain and conditions. Building more car parking at Canberra Hospital.
Roads: Duplicating Athllon Drive to ease congestion and make commutes faster. Upgrading Sulwood Drive to include a new road pavement, traffic lights, shared path, and better access to the car park at the base of Mount Taylor. Upgrading the Monaro Highway, starting with the new flyover at Lanyon Drive. Improving safety and traffic flow at Tharwa Drive and Norman Lindsay Street into Lanyon Marketplace.
Transport: Improving bus services in Tuggeranong, including a new rapid service between Lanyon and the City. Building new and renewed bus stops along Drakeford Drive, between Athllon Drive and Sulwood Drive in Kambah. Better integrating the SouthPoint Tuggeranong shopping precinct to public transport.
Schools: Improving public schools. Modernising the Photography Lab Learning Space at Lake Tuggeranong College. Hiring inclusion coaches for public school students. A free preschool program for three-year-olds, saving families up to $1,329 a year.
Local shops: Improving Calwell, Lanyon and Monash Shops; upgrading public spaces and facilities at Erindale and Chisholm Shops. Supporting the expansion and redevelopment of Kambah Village. Building more houses closer to local shops and in the Tuggeranong Town Centre.
Sports: Improving facilities and playing fields. Installing a portable grandstand and improving lighting for the Gordon Playing Fields. Making change rooms at Calwell, Chisholm and Wanniassa more female friendly. Upgrading Caroline Chisholm Senior School and Gowrie cricket nets. Supporting the Pine Tennis Club in Chisolm’s expansion plans. Increasing parking at Wanniassa Playing fields to make weekend sports easier for families. Upgrading facilities at the Tuggeranong Leisure Centre and Erindale Active Leisure Centre. Constructing an indoor ice sports facility. Upgrading the Calwell netball courts.
Parks and playgrounds: Replacing Kambah, Wanniassa, Bonython, Isabella Plains, Gilmore and Conder playgrounds. Upgrading Tuggeranong skatepark. Upgrading Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. A new dog park in Lanyon. Improving the water quality at Lake Tuggeranong, and bushland and landscape by re-naturalising waterways and creeks. Opening a new wildlife viewing platform at Tuggeranong Creek in Calwell.
Community facilities: Improve Tuggeranong Arts Centre and Lanyon Homestead to make them more accessible and useable for community and art groups. Helping the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery to set up a permanent exhibition space at Lanyon Homestead. More seating and desk spaces at Tuggeranong library. Upgrading the Gordon community centre.
Footpaths: A $5 million fund to build new footpaths and improve existing ones. A $2.5 million fund to improve streetlights. Upgraded footpaths and pedestrian crossings at schools, including outside Mary MacKillop College and Trinity College. Better footpaths, lighting and seating at Tuggeranong Foreshore, connecting Tuggeranong Lake to Tuggeranong Town Centre. Improved walking and cycling paths along Athllon Drive, including an underpass under Sulwood Drive to separate cyclists from traffic. A 4 km-long and 3 metre-wide asphalt, off-road path along Sulwood Drive.
Combined with projects already underway, ACT Labor promises to deliver more than $250 million in new and renewed infrastructure and services over the next four years.
“It’s a practical and proven plan for Tuggeranong’s future,” a Labor spokeswoman said. “It’s a plan that’s based on the feedback ACT Labor candidates have been getting from local residents on ways to improve their suburb and their region.”
Tuggeranong Community Council
Glenys Patulny, president of the Tuggeranong Community Council, said that Labor’s plan addressed locals’ priorities, such as the quality of the lake, transport, footpaths, and lighting – but wondered about the timeline of the plan.
“On paper, it sounds good,” Ms Patulny said. “It’s ticked a lot of the boxes. The devil’s in the detail. … When’s it going to happen?”
The government had, for instance, promised to upgrade Athllon Drive for years, since the last election, but not done so. Would the rapid service between Lanyon and the City travel directly to Civic, as bus routes in other areas of Canberra did, or would it travel via Woden first?
Canberra Liberals
“After ignoring Tuggeranong residents for over two decades, Andrew Barr is now trying to pretend he and his government will provide the region with some basic services that have long been neglected,” local Canberra Liberals MLA Mark Parton said.
“This is absolutely laughable; nobody south of Hindmarsh Drive will believe a single word of it.
“A government that has been in power for over 20 years should already be maintaining footpaths and infrastructure in Tuggeranong and for them to come out with this announcement just before an election is simply embarrassing.
“This is just more hollow promises from a government that has allowed Tuggeranong to drop off the map over the last 23 years.
“The announcement is apparently in response to feedback ACT Labor candidates have been getting from local residents, but I can tell you Tuggeranong locals have been giving this feedback for over a decade. Andrew Barr and his government have just chosen to ignore it, and are now pretending to care just before an election.
“All these pledges from Labor come at a time when they are preparing to spend over $4 billion on a tram line that will never get to Tuggeranong and that will result in significantly slower public transport for the entire south side.
“In contrast, the Canberra Liberals have already announced a comprehensive people focussed public transport policy that will ensure more frequent and faster commute times for Tuggeranong residents.
“We have also announced real cost of living measures, [and] a fairer, more transparent rates system along with a $100 million package for neglected suburbs.
“The Canberra Liberals will continue to make further announcements in the lead up to the election that will benefit the neglected Tuggeranong region.”
“The Liberal Party will criticise anything that Labor does,” Mr Barr replied. “We could cure cancer, and they would say you should have done it last week. So I take that with a grain of salt. The Liberal party aren’t going to endorse anything that Labor does in this campaign. That’s just politics as usual.”
ACT Greens
Local ACT Greens MLA Laura Nuttall said that while she welcomed new investment in Tuggeranong, she was concerned that many of Labor’s commitments were previous commitments on which the government was already working.
“It feels like we’re getting a lot of reannouncements in a neat new package because the things we’ve been promised all term haven’t happened yet,” Ms Nuttall said.
These included redevelopment to Calwell, Lanyon and Monash shops; the hydrotherapy pool; Lanyon Dog Park; South Tuggeranong health centre; and school improvements.
“I note with interest that a lot of these investments sit within current Labor portfolios,” Ms Nuttall said. “All MLAs have to be a little bit tribal, and I will always be fighting for Tuggeranong as a first priority. But surely if Tuggeranong was a priority for Labor, they could have done more to further these causes using their power as ministers this term.
“A lot of this is great stuff; many fellow Tuggeranites and I just wish they had happened already.”
Ms Nuttall welcomed Labor’s support for upgrades to the 27-year-old Tuggeranong skatepark.
“The skateboarding community has been consistently advocating for a proper upgrade to the skatepark, and I’m proud that the ACT Greens have been pretty consistent in backing them,” Ms Nuttall said. “This is not the last you’ll hear from us about the Tuggeranong skatepark this term.
“I’m proud that the Greens have already put forward plenty of great local ideas for Tuggeranong and the rest of the territory, such as giving every suburb its own budgeting powers in addition to regular suburban upkeep; insourcing and increasing funding annually for both path maintenance and new paths; building a new mental health walk in centre in Tuggeranong; establishing two brand new publicly-owned bulk billing GP clinics on the southside; and building 1599 public homes in Tuggeranong over the next 10 years.”
