Making Canberra a better place for everyone was at the heart of our 2016 election campaign and it’s great to see urban renewal happening across our city.

Many of Canberra’s centres built in the 30-year post-war period are starting to need a bit of renewal to ensure they continue to attract businesses activity.

We’ve already started a renewal process across parts of Canberra over recent years, including revitalised precincts like Braddon and NewActon that cater for every Canberran.

This kind of renewal takes time, patience and ongoing focus. It also takes faith in a vision of Canberra as a confident, fun, exciting city. 

So we’re renewing our town centres, with Woden a particular focus for the Government. By moving 1,000 ACT public servants to the town centre, enabling private development, and building light rail stage two, Woden can flourish as a renewed community hub.

Our suburbs are integral to how our city functions and, as our city continues to grow, we’re refreshing our services and innovating to make sure our suburbs are well looked after.

From more mowing to green bins, from sensible planning tweaks to a more efficient public transport system, we’re committed to keeping the Canberra you love, but making it better.

A great city needs a city centre, full of activity and people, so we’re focused on the renewal of our city centre. The aim is to give Canberra the city centre that Australia’s capital city deserves.

Through the new City Renewal Authority, we’re tackling the quick wins – like footpath upgrades and the expansion of Enlighten into the city – and the long-term approaches, including increasing residential population.

There is no reason why fewer people live in our city centre than in Belconnen’s town centre.

Greater densification of our city centre, and along our major transport routes, will preserve the unique character of Canberra’s garden suburbs.

Public investment in new infrastructure – such as light rail and a new theatre – is being backed up by significant private investment in the vision that our city centre will be confident, fun and exciting.

By planning now for the predicted 500,000 people who will call Canberra home by 2030, we can shape the change and protect our heritage, before the change shapes us.

Urban renewal isn’t about knocking down our past; it’s about building a strong and proud future.