00:00Good morning, Chief Minister. Thanks for answering questions.
00:05I wondered if you would consider providing a discount on rates.
00:10The footpaths around Lawson are in particularly poor shape.
00:13Have you lost touch with what ordinary Canberrans need?
00:21I live with pain every day and every night.
00:24It was here in the spring of 2021 that Stuart Poole's life changed forever.
00:30I hit some broken path and went over the handlebars and off into the grass with my bike landing
00:38on top of me. It broke my bike. It broke me.
00:42The Canbar resident isn't joking. He broke his hip and his wrist in three places.
00:49When taking legal action, Stuart discovered the dangerous path was reported months earlier.
00:55It wasn't repaired until a year later.
00:59Things that are dangerous take years to get fixed and all that time is risk to the public.
01:07Around 50,000 Fix My Street reports are made each year. Last year, the average time to
01:13resolve a request was 99 days. So far this year, the average response time is down to
01:1934 days. Tree maintenance is the biggest issue, followed by lighting and graffiti.
01:26We have over 83,000 lights across Canberra and we look after everything.
01:31Keeping Canberra well lit is Stuart Skellam's core business. He's been repairing the city's
01:37network of streetlights for more than five years.
01:41Some people really appreciate how quick we are to respond and some people wish we were
01:44a bit quicker to respond. We've got to try and keep everyone happy, but we're doing the
01:48best we can.
01:49Meet Andy English. He moved to Canberra from Sydney almost a decade ago, chasing fresh
01:56air and an easy lifestyle.
01:58I'm a keen photographer, so it's got all four seasons here. I love it.
02:03His only complaint? The poor lighting in his leafy suburb.
02:07There's got to be something better than what it is at the moment.
02:11Just weeks ago, Andy took a tumble in the dark at this intersection, while walking home
02:16with groceries.
02:17Misjudged or misstepped the gutter there and face-planted the road.
02:24Behind his smile is persistent pain.
02:26I'm still carrying a swollen ankle. I had a swollen wrist where I fell on that and captured
02:30it. I'm still living with a sore higher back and neck area.
02:36Harriet Sutton has only called Canberra home for a year. She has been stunned by the state
02:42of the suburbs.
02:43We're the nation's capital and we are a planned city and we have a wealthy population and
02:52we have an educated population and we pay the highest rates in the country. And I'm
02:59just not seeing it in the city services.
03:01From decades-old playgrounds to shabby signage, Harriet wants those in charge to lift their
03:07game.
03:08This is a beautiful place to live. It's a beautiful city. It's a growing city and we
03:12need to do better.
03:14The Territory Government spends $570 million each year on city services. That pales compared
03:21to the almost $2 billion spent on education and the near $3 billion spent on health.
03:27That, Michael De Percy says, is the challenge of having both state government and local
03:32council responsibilities.
03:35It's very difficult, I think, for ACT politicians that they have to get right down to the grassroots
03:39level, deal with issues like potholes, then at the same time focus on education and hospitals.
03:45The major advantage of the combined levels of government is the ability to raise revenue,
03:51which Michael says should mean better services for Canberrans.
03:56But is the government hitting the mark?
03:58It's an interesting question and I think one of the problems for the government is
04:02they've been in power for a very long time and governments that have been in for a long
04:05time tend to get a bit stale. Whether or not the community thinks that, we'll find out
04:09soon enough at the election.
04:12Gemma Hope is a proud Canberran and loves life in Macquarie.
04:17I love the space.
04:18It's a suburb, she says, that's well-maintained and lucky to have been part of the Food and
04:24Organics Collection trial.
04:26Thinking about the amount of food scraps that would go into your bin and that going into
04:30your FOGO drastically reduced our rubbish.
04:35Though the little black bin is getting less of a workout since Oreo arrived in April.
04:41Anything that she can't eat goes into the actual FOGO.
04:44A perk of Belconnen Living for all shapes and sizes.
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