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Mr NEWELL (Tweed—Parliamentary Secretary) [4.18 p.m.]: I report progress on developments with the Tweed Heads CBD Task Force. Members may recall that the task force was instituted last September-October by the previous Minister for Planning following a request from myself and others in the Tweed area to formulate a plan and a task force to revitalise the Tweed Heads CBD. Due to developments in the Tweed CBD area over the past five to six years, a lot of the commercial area has been run down, and a lot of the businesses that established there because it was such a lively commercial area have departed for other sites, particularly to the new shopping centres in Tweed Mall and in South Tweed at Tweed City.
I do not blame the banks and shops that moved to other areas, because they need to be where people go and it made good commercial sense for them to move once the decision had been made to allow the other developments to go ahead. The CBD was run down, it was lacking in life, and there was very little commercial or recreational activity there. The car yards that had once thrived along the Bay Street area also moved, and consequently the area looked very neglected. There was a great deal of angst that the gateway to New South Wales was being neglected, and the Minister at that time, Andrew Refshauge, responded with $120,000 funding for a CBD task force to employ a project manager, and this was enthusiastically taken up by the local community. Funding was also available to allow studies to be undertaken to ensure that decisions were taken with the right background information.
The CBD task force has been functioning for six months or more and it has gained the backing of the local community. I do not resile from the fact that at the start there was some angst in the community as to what direction the task force would take or whether it would decide on a sensible plan that the committee would accept. Some major high-rise developments were planned for the area. One of them, the Latitude 28 site, was refused consent by Planning NSW. The owners of other sites are working with the CBD task force and the local community, which strongly indicated what it felt were sometimes inappropriate developments. I am pleased to report that in its six months of operation the task force has gained a great deal of public support, including from the local chambers of commerce, the local progress associations, and the local community.
So far there have been three rounds of community consultation. The first was in February with the stakeholders, the owners, and other businesses already in the community. Eighty invitations were extended for that consultation meeting and all but three invitees attended. That indicates the level of enthusiasm and support in the community. A second round of consultation was held with some further stakeholders, and again it was enthusiastically attended. Recently at Minjundal Museum we consulted with the Aboriginal community, the original stakeholders in that area, if I can put it that way. In the short term, that community has appointed two spokespeople to look at some of the development plans. The task force has already accepted the tender for an economic development study. A number of these studies have been done in the past and consequently this will not take a great deal of time and effort. It will be done professionally, and some of the previous studies will be taken on board to ensure that the best information is gathered.
Jack Evans Boat Harbour has been recognised as a major focal point. In 1992 a plan for it was prepared as well. Some of that early work was good but it needs to be updated, and that is being re-examined by a special subcommittee and experts from the local community. Overall, I am delighted that the Tweed Heads CBD task force is forging ahead. By any standards it has the backing of the local community, and the newspapers are reporting positively on the work that has been done so far. I congratulate Magdy Youssef, the project officer, who has done such a great job to get it where it is today. [Time expired.]
Miss BURTON (Kogarah—Parliamentary Secretary) [4.23 p.m.]: I congratulate the honourable member for Tweed on his hard work in ensuring that the Tweed Heads CBD task force initiative got off the ground, and on his continuing representations in this place for the people of Tweed. It is good to see the community working together for the betterment of the local area. I wish the task force and the community ongoing success with this initiative.