Take a look at the proposed South Tuggeranong Health Centre

Christine’s Comments and how long has this taken? They only now decided to put a health centre at Condor. The suburb has been there for over 20 years. What is there excuse for taking so long? As a resident of Banks, I have only seen things happen at this end of town when an election is coming. Otherwise we are forgotten about.

Shea Jost So far it’s taken about 2 years. Conder’s been around for over 35 years. And? Not every suburb gets a public health centre. Tuggeranong is, I believe, unique in that it’ll have 3.

If you think you only see the government doing things in Tuggeranong when there’s an election coming, then you must see it doing a lot of things. Because there’s always an election coming.

Christine’s Comments In the 14 years I have lived in Banks, I have only seen ACT government undertake 1 major project in my area. And that was to put in some traffic lights. We constantly have blocked major drains that are constantly reported via fix my street. When we get heavy rain it floods the oval due the blocked drain. Just prior to the last election the government came down and cleaned all of the drains. Pity we haven’t seen it since. Early this year they were relaying the road. I was informed by the road crew that the government only allocates a certain amount of money to each suburb for road repairs. Once it is gone the suburb has to wait till the following year to continue repairs.

Shea Jost I don’t see how any of that has anything to do with the new health centre. I don’t know how the government allocates money for cleaning drains and road repairs, but I doubt there’s some kind of maximum amount per suburb. Some things seem to happen on a fixed schedule, others on an as-needed basis, and some things seem to never quite make it to the top of the list. And that’s been the case in every city, large or small, that I’ve ever lived in.

Christine’s Comments they do ignore Tuggeranong most of the time. This is only a proposal and a DA has been submitted, no idea when or if it will be completed. Take a look around at all the road upgrade signs that have been up for more than 1 election cycle. Take a look at how the bus timetable for Tuggeranong was destroyed when the tram opened. Take a look at the general maintenance of the place – these are all government services, not just a proposed health centre.

Janine Hayes And look at all the government services currently available in Tuggeranong. Including new ones. That’s the point I’m making. I think reasonable people can disagree about whether Tuggeranong (or any other part of the city) gets it’s fair share (if there’s any common agreement on what that would be) of investment and attention from the government. It’s another thing altogether to claim that the government completely ignores Tuggeranong.

Christine’s Comments especially when you speak for the government. Have you ever been in Tuggeranong seen our government MLAs out and about other than 4 weeks (and that’s generous) before an election? Neither have we.

Janine Hayes I don’t speak for anybody but myself. And yes, I’ve seen government MLAs in Tuggeranong, and not just in the month before an election. If you haven’t (I’m not sure who you’re claiming to speak for when you say “we”), maybe you weren’t hanging out in the right places. Tuggeranong is a big place, after all.