Page 1318 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
In addition to the ACT government’s consideration of the area, the National Capital Authority conducted its own report and found that West Murrumbidgee has plenty of development challenges. The NCA report into the area found that it would likely be home to around only 14,000 residents—fewer than the population of Kambah. The cost of building roads, bridges, water and sewerage across the Murrumbidgee River was found to be one of the most expensive areas for potential development in the ACT. In particular, development in this area would likely require a new water treatment plant. Bridges across the river would be expensive. Water quality impacts were also found to be significant. The infrastructure costs would mean that either blocks of land would become very expensive or, alternatively, the rest of the ACT ratepayers would be subsidising these homes. We also advised that there are more suitable areas to look for urban development, which is what we are doing with the Western Edge Investigation Centre.
The ACT government, separately from these federal concerns, looked at development in western Greenway for many of the beneficial reasons identified by Senator Seselja and Ms Lee. It is close to the Tuggeranong town centre and will prevent the town centre from being on the western fringe of Tuggeranong. The ACT government has already done some of the work to assess this area for development and, to date, the community has been very opposed to development in the area. In 2016 the ACT government asked people in my local area of Tuggeranong to provide feedback on their ideas for development between the Tuggeranong town centre and the Murrumbidgee River corridor. The response from the local community was overwhelming, with more than 1,000 contributions to this consultation, the vast majority of which oppose it. The opposition was not a surprise to me, as local member.
The Murrumbidgee River corridor has significant environmental value. Western Greenway is also a hub for community recreation, and this space between the Tuggeranong town centre and the river provides a space for Aussie Rules football, hockey and archery, and will soon be home to an ice sports facility. There are also walking and cycling tracks around the river. More residential development in this limited area, being close to the town centre, would likely be high- or medium-density development and perhaps force some of these community sports facilities to find a new home.
Those of us who represent the local area know how much people in Tuggeranong use and value this space for sport and active recreation, so I think it speaks volumes that this motion is not being moved by Mr Parton or Ms Lawder. If they listened to the community like I do, they would know that the Tuggeranong community has a longstanding opposition to development in this area. Maybe Mr Parton should spend less time on TikTok with his party faithful and more time listening to the diversity of views of the Canberra community.
Consultation reports about western Greenway are available on the YourSay website, and if the Canberra Liberals would like to do some homework for this proposal, they can have a look at that. Development in West Murrumbidgee was ruled out by the ACT Planning Strategy released in 2018, and the ACT government ruled out this development on the grounds of environmental impact, infrastructure requirements and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video