2020 - Ideas for the future of Canberra

Robbie is on the money.
The 2020 Summit was a woolly, unrepresentative, dumbed-down embarrassment (anyone else see Hugh Jackman’s self-projecting poncing?) and an exercise in disoriented petit-bourgeois self-satisfaction.
More sinisterly, it will be used as a false, ‘grass-roots’ mandate for the continuation and acceleration of globalist neoliberalism, ‘Labor’-style.
The transformation of Rudd – the weedy, nasty little technocrat – into a ‘visionary leader’ continues to be a source of horror and amazement.

Must agree with the quotes (I’m an ‘unacknowledged legislator’ too) — I wasn’t present but the predictable load of failed neoliberal crap — more regressive tax, lower wages, worse working conditions, more un(der)employment — from Murdoch’s Poodle will now be pseudo-legitimated by this exercise in ‘consultation’. Harry Potter coudn’t have worked better magic. (The Apology, Kyoto, etc are all similar attention-deflecting and legitimising devices, however valuable in themselves.) In my view, R-U-D-D spells F-R-A-U-D.

Of course, I didn’t vote for the schmuck.

Cheers Thumper, neither have I.

Scissors: yeah there was a post about Republic vs Monarchy, it got pulled at some point… i figure it wasn’t canberra enough or something…

nor me.

Scissors: yeah there was a post about Republic vs Monarchy, it got pulled at some point… i figure it wasn’t canberra enough or something…

Thumper: Who’s quote is that?

I thought it was funny how they gave them butcher’s paper and markers and sent them outside to “brainstorm” – just like being back in primary school!

circusmind said :

Perhaps when petrol reaches $2.00, parking at the canberra centre costs more than anything you buy, and it takes a full hour to drive from woden to civic in peak hour, the rest of town will see that the guys on two wheels wearing funny shorts are not the mad ones.

Fine if you work somewhere that’s actually within cycling distance from your home! And I would take the bus, if it didn’t take over an hour, when driving to work takes around a 1/2 hour.

Scissors said :

Apologies for posting to the wrong discussion…was there a thread about republic v monarchy on this site earlier today? Or am I going mad..?

I said bad things about Gough Whitlam, so maybe it’s been pulled by the party faithful? 🙂

Apologies for posting to the wrong discussion…was there a thread about republic v monarchy on this site earlier today? Or am I going mad..?

I think that could work, especially in conjunction with hamster powered treadmills.

And think of the new industries to be built around these technologies. Hamster farms, chrome trim for your tube pod, etc…

Bugger that. Teleporting. That’s new.

See Downer on the news tonight, whinging and carrying on? What a sad old featherduster. He seemed quite clown-like, speechwriters and publicists all gone, out on his own. Not a good look.

I was thinking clear tubes built in the sky, criss-crossing LBG

People vacuum tubes

2020 was such a wank

Extra-light rail?

Light rail is too easy, and oldschool technology. I mean, which century were trains invented?!
I would like to see Canberra become a city of innovative NEW ideas, things that haven’t been done before elsewhere and things we can proudly showcase to the world.. and then show THEM how.

And so i’m repeatedly told we’re all rich compared to everyone else – so why can’t we afford to spend a bit extra on coming up with our own unique ideas instead of just using the same tired old blueprint from other crap cities?

Light rail should be put in now, while there is still somewhere to put it.

Rail would have only a few stations (Woden / tuggers / civic / Belco / Gungahalin). So these stations could be actual waiting rooms. People could get dropped off at the station, or catch a bus there, then wait in the warmth for their train.

Light rail: Still need to catch a bus to a railway stop. Still need the train to run through and slow for lights and boom gate activated crossings, train stops, tight curves. Still need to wait in the fracking cold and have me standing on the chockers train trip with wheezing, delusional crack heads. Explain to me how public transport will enrich my life?

Here is my idea – its simple but I think it will solve alot of parking issues in Canberra:

*Please note that this post is written with the greatest of respect for “disabled” folks*

People displaying disabled stickers on their cars should only be permitted to park in a disabled space. If they park anywhere else they should be booked. I am sick of driving around for hours looking for a parking spot (and past 20 empty disabled spots) only to find the 1 available spot being taken by an extremely elderly chap with a zimmer frame and a diabled sticker. This has happened to me 3 times in the last 6 months!

EITHER USE THE SPOT OR LOOSE THE STICKER. Nuff said.

Tokyo was never attacked by atomic weapons, it was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But yes, both cities were rebuilt relatively quickly (I think they got the trams working again in Hiroshima about 7 days after the bomb).

Public transport is so important for Canberra, espcially as the town spreads out. What happened to the rentable bikes idea?

More ideas over here –

http://canberra.iprime.com.au/capitalbeat/story.asp?id=61&title=Forget%20The%20Rest,%20Here”s%20The%20Best
– the last 1 cracked me up!

Ahh like they did in Tokyo and Nagasaki.

Don’t believe everything you read in the paper. There will be people living on it sooner than that, and it might improve the gene pool as a byeffect.

Reply

There are plenty of conventional weapons that will do the job just as effectively! – yes but you need to consider the oncost of demolishing the rubble, resetting the foundations, etc.

The benefit of nuke is they can do it again from scratch so to speak. The only thing I would keep in the design of Queanbeyan is the straight road that goes past HMAS Harman.

A ringroad around the outside of the Airport so Terry Snow can develop his ass off, at least not affecting too much traffic while he does it, since he’s going to anyway.

Whole heartedly agree with this one. Nice ring road around airport, with one entry only into the airport (they have internal roads, afterall).

There will be a ring road of sorts round the airport. In addition to the beautification project currently udnerway to make the entrance to the airport look grand, the gov’t is upgrading Moreshed Drive so the Monaro connects straigth with Majura Road. Dunno if they’re going to do the under/over passes for that yet, but it’s slated.

Plus, there’s a back road going around the back of the airport from Majura Road to connect with Pialligo Ave on the Qbn side of Fairbairn. They’ve resumed the farms along those hills for teh purpose. People driving to/from Qbn in recent weeks might have seen the signs up advertising a clear-out sale of the farm on that side.

Yeah for sure. It is one of those situations where there is a lot to gain, and not much to lose.

lol@chase of nubile bike shorted…sounds like an opera.

yay! reduction of HECs debt in exchange or somehting useful is a total cracker of an idea…

tap said :

circusmind: agreed.

… the shorts aren’t really necessary are they though? im not sure i like the idea of tens of thousands of canberrans getting around in them… 😉

I must confess–i don’t wear bike shorts, just regular jogging/gym shorts. Though I do enjoy chasing down some of the more nubile bike-shorted cyclists of a morning 😉

In all seriousness, a safe way for cyclists to get into civic would be nice. While I can take a lovely bike path the entire way from woden into civic, I have to join commonwealth avenue to get over the lake. Personally, I’m confident enough to take my chances in traffic. However, it must be a barrier for would-be cyclists, knowing they will have to tangle with two-tonne weapons driven by CT letters page denizens of the ‘cyclists deserve road rash’ school of thought.

circusmind: agreed.

… the shorts aren’t really necessary are they though? im not sure i like the idea of tens of thousands of canberrans getting around in them… 😉

Yeah that sounds good Thumper. Hopefully somewhere inside the general climate change ideas there is room for something along these lines.

By the way does anyone have a link to all the ideas?

My (and those around me’s) ideas:

* Next time round, get off arse and actually submit my ideas to the summit.

* Find out if anything is stopping us from turning large amounts of our deserts into solar plants. If not do so. If so find out what can be done to change whats stopping us.

* Community work in exchange for lessening of HECs (was pretty happy to find out someone else submitted that one)

Thumper, I’d add compulsory solar panels for all large buildings in Canberra.

After all, imagine how much power you could pull off a few of those large public service/commercial buildings around town.

Mael, I’m sick of hearing people like yourself saying things like “Nuke Queanbeyan”.

There are plenty of conventional weapons that will do the job just as effectively!

OK I’ll get on topic – ideas for the development of Canberra.

1. A ringroad around the outside of the Airport so Terry Snow can develop his ass off, at least not affecting too much traffic while he does it, since he’s going to anyway.

2. Foster niche industries that Canberra can become the master of, such as Black Truffles and Escargot. Continue to support wineries development and become the 4th major wine district in Australia. Live off the fat of Melbourne and Sydney who can afford niche products…

3. Any new housing has to be in accordance with best practice environmental knowledge.

4. Any new buildings have to contain as much underground carparking as there is capacity above ground for people.

5. Implement a siphon system for water resources across ALL lakes in Canberra that can be adjusted to meet demand for water.

6. Build the trunk internet backbone into Canberra via Sydney, and then long-term, Melbourne

7. Implement a 4 day working week, allowing for part time staff to take up the slack of the 3 day week, thus creating a true 7 day industrial capacity (actually that should have been brought up at the big brother 2020 event).

8. Nuke Queanbeyan

That’ll do. I can probably think of more but that’s enough of a teaser.

I still do. Polls indicatate that if you bail a person up on the street they are more likely to be a Rudd supporter than not. You started discussing ‘Russ supporters’ here, so you may consider your own choice of words, but really when we are saying rudd supporters we are talking about labor (sometimes i get it right, many times not 😉 supporters in general. austrNo need to be too perfect when wording stuff.

Again my general point: More people than not in this country support Rudd. In order for this to be representative then more people at the summit would have to support Rudd. Im sure Rudd knew this. I doubt he would have done the same thing if he was on 10% popularity. However that does not matter at all.

I dont think that it is particularly logical to say that if a person goes on record say they ‘approve’ of rudd (i think what the polls generally ask) that they would then not vote for him ‘I approve of Rudd but will vote for the liberals because… well.. im an idiot.’ How often would that happen?

Why do you think it was not bi-partisan?

There are some ideas that are labor oriented (although your examples im not entirely sure on, their are republicans on both sides of politics for example). But hopefully this will be a way of stopping a lot of people being blindly against them because the idea came from the wrong team (the reverse aswell). Lots of plain, good ideas, like doing community work in exchange for lessening HECS debts were aired. Either side could have come up with an idea like that.

Thumper, this was talking to their constituents. There is so much potential for this to be a great thing, involving people more in the democratic process, why be against it? There is absolutely no evidence that nothing will come of this (no evidence that something will either, except so far K-Rudd has by and large done what he has said he was going to do).

Your point about the ALP should have been able to come up with these ideas themselves… well you can have that, i don’t see how it is important at all.

Reverse the car culture in canberra. I’m amazed by the madness that is thousands of canberrans sitting alone in their cars in absolute gridlock on adelaide avenue each morning as i fly past on my bike. Perhaps when petrol reaches $2.00, parking at the canberra centre costs more than anything you buy, and it takes a full hour to drive from woden to civic in peak hour, the rest of town will see that the guys on two wheels wearing funny shorts are not the mad ones.

Fund the hell out of university education. Abolish HECS and DFEE for Go8 universities–the rest can be degree mills if they wish, but our top unis should be incredibly competitive, elite and generously-resourced institutions. Australia should aspire to have the best educated populace in the world. I want my education revolution, damn it, and I take K-Rudd’s laptops-for-kiddies rubbish as a big middle finger to the thousands and thousands of uni students who voted (and hell, a lot of us actively campaigned) for him.

I have to say that if you lot are indicative of the people that were invited to the 2020 summit it comes as no surprise that there weren’t many new ideas. seems RiotACT’s readers dont have many either (with a few notable exceptions)

I did not say polls counted as an election Thumper. I said they are polls. They certainly may be correct, still polls, and still the most recent estimates we have to go off. I fail to see how polls are irrelevant. Do you think John Howard thought he was doing fine just before the last election due to the fact that he won the previous election? Doubtful, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked his party room whether he should go or not because of their unpopularity.

I doubt that Kevin Rudd personally invited everyone to the summit Thumper. I was actually under the impression that a bi-partisan group of people did that?

I think a real positive out of this is that these ideas are not labours, which means that some good ideas that have come out of this will hopefully be implemented without having the stigma of either being a labor policy of liberal policy.

I support more visits to Canberra by Cate Blanchett.

Thumper, in the most recent polls (whether they can be believed or not blah blah, they always seem to get elections right.) Rudd had 70%, Nelson around 10%. So it follows that in a group of 100 people that 70 should be in favour of Rudd, 10 in favour of Nelson, and 20 not either (most probably liberals who cant bring themselves to support Nelson, but we don’t know). Which gives Rudd a large majority really.

The whole 2020 thing may have had some ‘potential’, but in the end all it turned out to be one giant arse-kissing contest.

What is it about Kev and Celebs? During his overseas trip he didn’t have any time to contact the Prime Minister of Japan, but he could sure find the time to see Russell Crowe – and now Cate Blanchett and he are all over one another like a rash – even to the extent that he avoided going to John Button’s funeral so he could take Cate’s baby, Iggie, a present!

I’m sorry, Cate – but you and your other ‘talented’ friends don’t represent me or any other relatively normal people I know of.

Jesus, this place is becoming more and more like America every day!

Maelinar… are you alright? not sick or anything? but… i agree with you… (that was weird).

Brendan Nelson was there. The only disparaging comment he could muster was that the sex workers industry was not represented.

Therefore I declare that the 2020 summit was a success, as no valid negative comments have any substance. There has already been outcomes, so those naysayers who declare that ‘nothing’ will come of the summit are similarly full of it.

Personally, I take great pleasure in the fact that my Prime Minister wants to do something positive – be it misguided or not, any forward momentum is positive. All I ever got from the previous top guy was pull your pants down, its time to take another one for your country (analogy).

I think the ‘fat tax’ on junk food is a ripper.

Well, smokers are taxed higher because it is unhealthy, gambling in taxed highly, drinking is taxed highly, why not junk food. Although, defining that kind of law seems a little problematic. Your average resturants sell some pretty unuhealthy food. I can just see the upper end of the the market loving having their five star, $100 a main resturant meals declared “junk” food because they contain more garlic butter then a big mac does fat…

Most of the “issues” raised seem to be attempting to address problems we already have, while some of these may get worse in the future others will always be there for the governemnt to deal with. As many people have pointed out, the future will have other problems, and worsen those, and need to be focused on.

from my point of view,

Ageing population – as mentioned, healthcare/aged care overlap.
Greenhouse gasses and climate change
somewhat linked to
Energy to power everything we use (fossil fuels we either become more scarce or we’ll stop using them)
Reality television – one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse

For it have represented australia as a whole, the whole of australia would have had to have gone. When you say the majority of people were Rudd supporters how do you know this? But ill assume that your statement is based on some kind of fact. Considering that the majority of australians support Rudd (at least over any alternatives) doesn’t it make sense that the majority of people at the summit would be likewise? Anything else would have been unrepresentative.

Re Light Rail – I think it is feasable from the point of view that Canberra is a demonstration city, showing the larger cities alternative options, and less peopulated cities more efficient methods of, insert whatever it is here.

If they can do it right in Canberra, they can emulate that success in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, etc. There is where they will make their money back, but here is where it needs to be piloted.

But why here ? Because this town is purpose built as a demonstration city. If it hadn’t been, this would still be a wrecked sheep paddock enterprise.

FYI, dirty bird = KFC

S4anta said :

I think the ‘fat tax’ on junk food is a ripper… (snip).. the only real change will be rise in the price on the board for a steak sanger or a box of deep fried dity bird.

Dity bird?! Never heard that one before. The thing that amuses me about calls for increased tax on junk food, is that it’d hit WORKING FAMILIES quite hard, as many of them seem to regard as a basic right being able to get takeaway food on a weekly basis. ie when you read reports about Families doing it tough due to mortgages etc, one of their complaints is having to reduce their expenditure on Takeaway food.

When I was a kid, getting a pie from the Steampacket Hotel on teh way to the coast was a dreamed-of event, akin to entering heavan.

The Canberra Times site has this gem of a picture from the 20/20 Summit hidden on it:
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/viewimage.asp?id=435918
Imagine George W doing this! It’d never happen. Our PM is still normal, he might not always be this way.

I’ve checked out the generic car pooling sites … and they’re useless because they’re not localised to Canberra and no one knows about them. I’ve listed on PickupPal as a driver and not one enquiry. Doubt anyone has even looked at my listing.

RuffnReady – you should get in contact with me if you want to do something; I’m keen to get something started (having ditched the Fair Canberra Parking project due to non-interest). Google “NathanaelB” to find me. Cheers.

I think the ‘fat tax’ on junk food is a ripper. More money for the respective State Governments, however in the scheme of things apart from increased funding for awareness raising activites in regards to choosing healthy food options the only real change will be rise in the price on the board for a steak sanger or a box of deep fried dity bird.

Everyone is talking about crap we could have been talking about 10 years ago, thats not thinking for the future (well not by my definition anyway)

Public transport will not (and shouldn’t) REPLACE personal transport. It’s a nice idea but everyone keeps talking like petrol will be $5 a litre soon, roads will be obsolete blah blah…
Why not think in a “future” kind of way? We WILL have an alternate fuel source when they get off their asses … zero pollution vehicles = who cares about forcing people to carpool or catch public transport? (It’s an issue for now, but not the future..)

Why dont we do something nobody else has done, like have tubes with little pods that you call up like a taxi with no driver, and transports you around underground to central locations (very quickly). Have automated robotic mining equipment to go around digging all the tunnels etc to keep cost down.
That’s just a hair-brain idea off the top of my head. But you know, its something different. (and I like NEW technology)

Or maybe we should just start preparing our future city to accomodate horse and carriage?

Thumper said:

Gunstreet girl,

well said. I wonder if Katie has thought of any of those things….

+ 1. All good, solid, commonsense stuff. I’ve heard of all the poor oldies who are in hospital, because there’s no aged care accommodation for them. Aged Care would be a much, much cheaper way of managing their conditions, and would free up beds for people who need to be in hospital. Many of the sick oldies don’t need to be in acute care, and being in an acute care environment is terrible for them, I reckon it makes them feel worse. More aged care should be a priority NOW. I can’t believe the government hasn’t put this at the top of the list.

RuffinReady there are websites for car pooling. Google it. I just don’t think anyone knows about them. I think car pooling is a great idea, no one wants to do it though.

Plus there are no 3 for Free parking areas now to encourage it. WEll I don’t know of any in civic.

RuffnReaday has the right idea – we need to use what we have more effectively before assuming we need something new.

Light rail isn’t really feasible in Canberra, because it will only be able to run between the major hubs anyway, and you still need a way to get from the suburbs to the hubs. We need ideas to improve traffic flow, rather than hindering it. For example, adding roundabouts to major routes for very low use cross streets does nothing but slow everything down, meaning more people trying to us the same road at the same time, and the traffic snarls we have now. Seriously encouraging car pooling is a great idea. Of course, it won’t work for everyone (like myself), as I have to drop kid off at care, then wife at work, then go to work, and do the reverse in the evening (although this is form of car pooling I suppose).

el said :

el: Ooh, wait, I know –

WORKING FAMILIES.

If you’re not a parent, then please step to one side and kill yourself, right Kevie?

Pretty much the message I’m getting. But more accurately, if you’re not currently raising children, please place your taxes on the table, and step aside. You don’t count.

It’s ironic that many of the things we’re labelling as issues and problems for the future are either caused or exacerbated by rising population.

@Pandy – no traffic lights.

It takes me 23 minutes to travel by car to Civic from my garage. It takes me 65 minutes by bus in peak times and I do not change buses. Tell me how light rail is going to be faster please?

Dammit, we need an edit button. I forgot the / in my bold tag. it was meant to look like this:

If you are talking about commuting, CARS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM… the number of people per car is! Most people commute at one person per vehicle. Two people per car creates the same GHGs as public transport, so if people took car-pooling seriously there wouldn’t be a problem, and road congestion/parking problems would be almost non-existent. What about a website specifically designed to facilitate linking people in suburbs for car pooling? And then change parking regs so that 1 person/car pays $20/day, 2/car $5/day, and 3+ pay nothing? For a minimal cost to the govt, you could achieve the same pollution-negating outcomes with a little forward planning and community spirit.

That’s only one idea. I have hundreds more. And they are all feasible. Why wasn’t there a HUMAN ECOLOGY forum at the summit?

If you are talking about commuting, CARS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM… the number of people per car is! Most people commute at one person per vehicle. Two people per car creates the same GHGs as public transport, so if people took car-pooling seriously there wouldn’t be a problem, and road congestion/parking problems would be almost non-existent. What about a website specifically designed to facilitate linking people in suburbs for car pooling? And then change parking regs so that 1 person/car pays $20/day, 2/car $5/day, and 3+ pay nothing? For a minimal cost to the govt, you could achieve the same pollution-negating outcomes with a little forward planning and community spirit.

That’s only one idea. I have hundreds more. And they are all feasible. Why wasn’t there a HUMAN ECOLOGY forum at the summit?

Yass will be annexed and the ACT section of the Hume Highway will be a toll road. We’ll also be eyeing off Batemans Bay and everything north to Jervis Bay in an effort to reunify the Territory.

Sepi – I would take a razor gang to the paper pushers and micro-managers who do nothing but run surveys and start stupid projects designed to improve outcomes, but in reality, do nothing but create work to justify their pointless existence. I would pour money into attracting nurses – real nurses who actually work on the floor, rather than sit in on committee meetings. Without more nurses, we can’t open beds, and we need more beds open to prevent access block. Given the nation wide shortage of nurses (and doctors), this would necessitate paying above award wages and offering a better working environment than is presently on show at TCH, so that we could competitively recruit against other states. I would pour obscene amounts of money into aged care facilities in the ACT, and staff them with nurses who are paid *at least* the same as their colleagues in the hospital, as opposed to the two-thirds of the award that they take home today (which in itself is a scandal). More aged care beds would free up a substantial amount of acute beds in TCH which are otherwise occupied by elderly patients (often for weeks or months – occasionally years – at a time) who are waiting for a bed in an aged care facility. I would make TCH management acknowledge the fact that they are already stretching their workforce to breaking point, and make efforts to lift morale, which is at an all-time low at present. Oh, and I’d do more than pay lip service to safe working hours for medical officers. But that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

And that’s just a start.

I would like to see a government actually doing something instead of wasting time and our money with bullsht like 2020 summits.

Canberrans wont be happy with public transport until they have the bus running to their front door at their command. A light rail may one day be feasible, but the only place they will ever run is the main transport corridors, not to the suburbs. There will have to be some sort of connectivity with buses and people will have to realise the bus won’t run down every street and they will have to walk to catch one! But since governments can’t organise a decent bus service, it’s highly unlikely they can run anything else.

I’m interested – what would you do first?

What can be done to improve the place…? How long have you got? 😉

Seriously – ask anyone who works there. We’ve got heaps of ideas – a shame nobody in management is interested in what the troops have to say.

I think health is one area where people really are happy to see their taxes spent.

What can actually be done though – expand the hospital – it is already huge.

All the smart people were at BarCampCanberra this weekend – not the 2020 Summit 🙂

CanberraResident said :

Plain and simple. We need a hospital system that works. One without excuses, one without excessive waiting times, one with beds, and one that delivers results. We should aim to make the Canberra Hospital the best public hospital in Australia, not one of the worst, which is where I would currently place it from my experiences.

I agree wholeheartedly. But is the public willing to pay for that system? TCH needs an awful lot of money to bring it out of the doldrums it’s currently in. Slashing the administrators and ineffectual managers would be a good start, but even if we achieved this, the hospital would still need an astronomical amount of money to bring it back to where it should be.

Let me make biodiesel and distill ethanol in my back yard without paying excise. Doesn’t seem to be a problem in New Zulland. – WMC, you don’t pay excise. There’s plenty of people who frequent this site who are homebrewing biodiesel right here in Canberra.

You can also pick up a still at butts-n-brew, so you can distil the methanol out of your glycerin at the end – net effect you’ll not actually use any methanol (at least not a lot) through the entire process.

Then send the wife down the markets every sunday with all the spare glycerin you have (soap…)

a government that we can elect and then have make laws for canberrans, not just some that the big people’s gov’t wants while disallowing the ones it doesn’t like.

so, some respect.

and a mandatory hamburger on a sunday evening standard across all canberra. dammit.

Let me make biodiesel and distill ethanol in my back yard without paying excise. Doesn’t seem to be a problem in New Zulland.

illyria said :

Bus travel in Canberra is sooooooooooo practical.

And light rail will be so much better…not. For the same reasons, not to mention the expen$e and disruption of setting it up in the first place.

hehe – or a taxi!

Some more ideas:

– Watering of vegie gardens at all times.

– sprinkler watering of gardens allowed on sundays

– sprinkler watering of lawns allowed once a month – or hand watering of lawns once a week

– Singles/couples in public housing who’s families have moved out to be down-sized to a unit.

– Some really basic tiny units to be built as ’emergency public housing’ – if people are really desperate they’ll take them, til they get a real unit or house.

– a lockable rehab centre to be built (for crooks to be sentenced to)

– a private rehab centre to be built (for those who can pay to go to on-demand)

– legalise drugs (this one is national too – or else every Aust druggie will move here.)

– legalise gay partnerships

– the couples rate of the dole/hecs to be paid at double the singles rate – to stop people lying about being in a relationship. (this one is national really)

Yeah. Cate Blanchett caught the bus. Waited in the cold at the bus stop for the bus which was running late then used her superwoman strength to haul herself up on the bus along with her capsule, pram, baby bag full of the requisite baby items and the new born baby suckling at her breast. Of course the bus driver didn’t help her fold up her pram or get on the bus, he just stared at her with a look that said “hurry up and get on the bloody bus” along with all the other passengers who were quietly “in the zone” and not having to concentrate on anything……. then when she got off the bus, the stop was actually 500 metres from where she actually needed to go so she had to haul………..you get the drift

Bus travel in Canberra is sooooooooooo practical.

gNt, good luck with the whole baby thing but my advice is get yourself a reliable car. Something small, maybe electric. But don’t count on public transport around here to get you to the hospital on time.

Did any of the delegates arrive by public transport?

Monorail, monorail, monorail!!!!!!

PLease go to http://www.freewebs.com/mypicturesandsht/simpsons%20monorail.gif.

The whole 2020 summit was a load of crap. Nothing will come of it. A lot of overarching, underpinning, inclusiveness blah, blah, blah, artists in residence at every school, more public funding for the arts, blah, blah.

Rudd sounded like a true communist leader, equality for all, everything for everyone.

Plain and simple. We need a hospital system that works. One without excuses, one without excessive waiting times, one with beds, and one that delivers results. We should aim to make the Canberra Hospital the best public hospital in Australia, not one of the worst, which is where I would currently place it from my experiences.

With a part-time crapola Minister at the helm, I doubt this will be fixed in the short-term, so 2020 looks like a good target date to have this mess ironed out.

Also, it would be great to get rid of the ACT Government by … let’s say 2019? Nice 30th birthday present??? Abolish self-government! Bring on the local council and say goodbye to all the mickey mouse politicians.

Well, I think that the idea of promoting ideas is a good thing. It can provoke thinking in people, but maybe it had an idea which was beyond some?

Or, on the other hand, was the event merely political spin, political genius or?

Does it grab you? Do you see front page headlines for weeks over?
Or do you see a future that is possible, when one thinks?

I kind of feel like I have the need to want more out of my governments.

I think there are big improvements to be made in maternity services and baby and child health in the ACT.

The birth centre at Woden should be expanded to Calvary also. Currently you have to book in the day you find out you are pregnant, and even then probably go on a waiting list. The birth centre is the only place where you will have met your midwife before you turn up to give birth. Everywhere else it is just a lottery – you might get a good one, or you might hate them.

And baby services are minimal here. In Adelaide all children up to 12 are bulk billed by doctors. And in victoria and qld babies continue to have monthly visits with the health centre nurses for their first 12 months. Here you get a 4 week check, then an 8 week check and that is it – your on your own.

Yeah, I know my idea is not workable but the current problems as I see it, from a patient’s point of view are:
lack of continuity of care
lack of information
lack of birthing choice/options

The Canberra Midwifery Program has some great positives (continuity being one) but plenty of negatives (lack of choice, despite them proclaiming to be all about choice). I want a system that gives people continuity AND choice, as well as being informed (which I think I am thanks to the net, but I’m sure plenty of mothers have little or no idea).

Ooh, wait, I know –

WORKING FAMILIES.

If you’re not a parent, then please step to one side and kill yourself, right Kevie?

GnT said :

I also want to see a revamp of the public health system, especially when it comes to having babies (something I am going through now). I want to see ante-natal care incorporated into the public health clinics rather than attached to the hospitals. You can then see your midwife at your local clinic throughout your pregnancy, and still choose which hospital you want to give birth at. You go back to the clinic for baby care afterwards with the same midwife.

So you just want the midwives to work in a non-hospital setting for your antenatal appointments…? Whilst I’m sure that the TCH ambulatory care goons are already onto it, this provides a logistical nightmare, in that the midwives would be away from the birthing centre (which is attached to the hospital) on days they do ante- and post natal clinics – thus removing them from labouring women in the hospital. Succinctly, they won’t be able to be in two places at once (whereas they can now, when their patients visit them at the hospital).

I agree the entire public health system needs a lot of work (I see it from the inside), but I would contend that women’s and children’s health is comparatively well serviced in the ACT, when contrasted with other services that are really struggling at the moment.

Nobody has mentioned Internet access, bandwidth and cost as of yet.
And GnT, I completely agree with paid maternity leave.

Supporter, even.

Yes, I’m a supported of it, barney.

Build it in Macarthur, too.

bigred said :

Light rail won’t happen for the same reason GDE did happen. Vested interest and no future thoughts beyond the next election.

That’s the problem. No government is willing to waste time and resources on something that would happen outside of their current term, or may improve the possibility of another term. But perhaps we shouldn’t be so negative and sarcastic about forward planning, even if pollies have their heads in their backsides. On the same token, I wouldn’t say that the pollies are the only category of folk with their heads in the sand.

I’d like to see some forward planning for a light-rail transport system by local government and other industries. I just don’t get the feel that there is any forward thinking from any government, be it local or federal, 6 years ago or now…

Nuclear power. Well, is that something you think we may have, but you don’t agree with? Or are you a proponent of it, lol. Though we should have more environmentally friendly sources of electricity.

I’d also hope that 90% of residencies in Canberra would have rain-water tanks installed.

But you know, maybe people plan to be living somewhere else within 10 or so years.

I was originally cynical of the 20202 summit, but now I’m getting really excited about what these great ideas are going to be.

Nationally, we need a piad maternity leave scheme. I would also like to see more done for Indigenous people, but this is where we need new ideas because none of the old ideas that have been recycled seem to work.

For Canberra, I definitely agree that our reliance on cars is a problem. But again, we need a major new idea not a rehash of all the old ones (light rail, re-do Action’s routes etc).

I also want to see a revamp of the public health system, especially when it comes to having babies (something I am going through now). I want to see ante-natal care incorporated into the public health clinics rather than attached to the hospitals. You can then see your midwife at your local clinic throughout your pregnancy, and still choose which hospital you want to give birth at. You go back to the clinic for baby care afterwards with the same midwife.

Electric cars the size of golf buggies which you collect from hub points and pay for with a swipe of plastic and which return a deposit when they are returned to the hub. These will not replace cars or public transport but be an adjunct and gradually will become the norm. They could use bike lanes, cleaning and damage problems could all be solved with a bit of thought.

Nuclear power.

Light rail won’t happen for the same reason GDE did happen. Vested interest and no future thoughts beyond the next election.

LIght Rail

Public Transport is very important.

They used to say that Canberra was too small in population for sustainable public transport.

Now Canberra is much bigger and they say it is too spread out for effective public transport.

I think they just need to get more innovative. Smaller mini-busses could be the way to go.

But what will it take for people to not use their cars in Canberra?

Public Transport has to be at the top of the agenda, if we want to reduce carbon emissions, not to mention that, the way things are going, driving a car is going to be prohibitively expensive by 2020.

In any case, I hate having to drive everywhere because it means I have to concentrate all the time. I’d much rather switch off and daydream during a twenty minute ride to work on a metro light rail system or similar.