13 August 2007

You are now entering Public Serviceville

| Jazz
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The Gungahlin suburb of Casey is set to become public serviceville with the govt announcing today the release of 1000 new blocks to meet the influx of public servants expected over the next few years, and somewhat combat the housing affordability problem facing the city. I imagine the entire suburb will be all in black and white, with neat uniform houses and identical gardens, ala pleasantville. Blocks will go on sale later this year.

I wonder how long it will take before a big govt department relocates offices there.

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Indeed it is a good read.

Never mind Mars has been warming up as well.

Gungahlin Al10:23 am 15 Aug 07

Been reading the dissenting report from the Coalition backbenchers have we Ralph? I think Annabelle Crabb summed that up well yesterday when she pointed out 1/ that their report also called Titan a planet and 2/ that the quoting of Titan was sweetly ironic, given that Titan has an orbit that goes the opposite way from all the other major objects in our solar system…

stonedwookie9:49 am 15 Aug 07

they tell us to use less water but they keap building new suburbs.
wheres all the water gonna come from for all these new suburbs?

Science relies on testing hypotheses, not concensus.

Funny, those other planets in the solar system seem to be heating up as well.

Gungahlin Al9:16 am 14 Aug 07

Noodle: I think you need to re-read my comment. It was completely supporting of the release of more commercial land in Gungahlin (not just to be wasted on surface-level carparks I might add) for exactly the reasons you mention.

The only thing wrong with it is exactly as you say – something is holding the release of land up – but it isn’t with ACTPLA (for Gungahlin anyway) because I’ve had that conversation with Neil Savery – it seems to be in the CMO as they are in charge of “strategic land releases”. (Land availability around Deakin may have more to do with the delays getting the redrafted Territory Plan finished.)

Ralph: you are right and I stand corrected. It is your absolute right to ignore the overwhelming weight of evidence and scientific opinion from the great majority of the world’s experts in the field. Much the same I guess as it was the right of the world’s religious leaders to ignore for centuries all the evidence that the world wasn’t actually flat until Cook went and physically sailed around it.

So by extension, I guess the only ‘compelling enough argument’ of climate change that will be good enough for you will be when you actually see the crisis hit you in the face. Pity it won’t happen with Hollywood-style overnight speed. Here’s hoping you are still around to see it though…

Gunghalin Al – what’s wrong with releasing commercial land? People have to work somewhere. I’ve got friends in an office in Deakin desperate to find somewhere else, cos they’re bursting at the seams, but there’s some bottleneck at ACTPLA which is preventing them from getting a site (they’re a medical practice by the way, so need to be located near the hospital and not Gungahlin).

Defence Housing is not run by the Military.

The Military has given them a minimum standard of service they expect, and DHA apply that standard.

If that standard is not equivalent to the minimum standard of production for that particular region, then the fault is with building inspectors not doing their job properly.

That said, DHA tennants think themselves more precious than gold in most instances, you’d think young soldiers were all hanging out at country clubs and horse riding establishments to meet their … ladies.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt2:25 pm 13 Aug 07

“Can anyone please tell me why when the Federal Government has 5.5 star minimums on the design of all new government commercial tenancies, that Defence Housing can produce such poor buildings for the government in defiance of that standard?”

Defence, has, does, and will continue, to do their own thing. They do not believe themselves accountable to ‘civvies’.

I think you should replace your sentence where it says ‘doesn’t believe’, with, ‘believes that the science does not present a compelling enough argument’. That would be a more accurate representation of my position.

Questioning scientific arguments was always regarded as healthy, but not so according to the green ideologues.

Gungahlin Al1:50 pm 13 Aug 07

Ralph: and you don’t think that they’ll be shifting their emphasis from places like DEWR over to climate change initiatives?? Oh – that’s right – Ralph doesn’t believe in climate change…

Gungahlin Al1:48 pm 13 Aug 07

Kramer: in a word no. ACTAB just opened their head office upstairs in the Big W building, and DIMA/DIC/DIAC have I think 170 upstairs from Coles. That’s about it.

But the draft Territory Plan did have a big chunk of was-to-be-more-bloody-townhouses redesignated as C2 Commercial, so we are hoping that this is what the Chief Minister is referring to in the throw-away sentence at the end of his media release about “investigations into more commercial land” near the town centre…More jobs in the Gungahlin town centre means less traffic for everyone else.

Jazz: really? as it been that long since you took a drive around and ventured outside the old suburbs? It’s all about brick veneer with red tile roof (or lately more moving towards black tile roof), and largely due to the influence of the tripe that Defence Housing pump out more than anything.

Can anyone please tell me why when the Federal Government has 5.5 star minimums on the design of all new government commercial tenancies, that Defence Housing can produce such poor buildings for the government in defiance of that standard?

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt1:00 pm 13 Aug 07

They may cut a few jobs, but didn’t the most recent budget allow for about 5000 new ones?

Labor has pledged to cut public service jobs, Santa.

Are there any sizable govt agencies in Gungahlin?

nah, they won’t build a govt office out there. all the govt departments are moving out to SnowyTown.

nice work ralph. thinking about the numbers, your logic adds up to less than 100 people. keep up the oxygen thievery.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt11:47 am 13 Aug 07

Putting govt depts into major satellite centres, then releasing blocks around each centre together with new infrastructure, will actually help a lot with housing costs, because demand will be diffused into the new areas. The current problem is one of supply, but also one of supply in given areas. If there are good reasons to live in an outlying satellite areas then some demand for currently desirable areas will relax, leading to more stable and sensible property prices. Of course, the highly desirable areas will always be expensive (and become more so as time goes by and population increases), but the mid-range type housing will be a lot more affordable in satellite areas.

I think it’s a good idea.

Depending on election outcome people may be leaving in droves next year, a la 1996.

Housing problem, solved.

jazz,

not black and white, mission brown.

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