Page 2474 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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remarks to two important issues associated with the polis, which should be addressed even at this very early stage because they deal with essential planning and development steps that will impact upon all of the ACT if the MFP is established.
The role of the very fast train project has been properly recognised as fundamental to the MFP. The provisional siting of both the MFP and the VFT Canberra terminal has taken account of this connection, as has the MFP's proximity to the airport. However, the MFP will require not only external transport links but internal links as well. This is the first of the issues that I urge the Government to address immediately.
It is fortuitous, if coincidental, that this debate comes so soon after the release of the Gungahlin external travel study and the Government's consultation paper Transport ACT, because the outcome of those two reports must take account of the internal transport needs of the MFP if it is ever to be successful. From our studies it would appear that an MFP located at Jerrabomberra could be easily served by traffic from Tuggeranong by the Eastern Freeway.
Ease of traffic from elsewhere - and I note that it is planned that the MFP will have a working population of 25,000 people - is not so easy to assess. For example, while traffic from Gungahlin could reach the MFP via the proposed Majura Parkway and the Eastern Parkway, I am not sure what effect, if any, this increased traffic flow through Fyshwick would have upon that already congested heavy vehicle area.
Indeed, I doubt that the 11,800 people or 9,800 vehicles estimated in the Gungahlin report to be travelling southward from Gungahlin during peak hour include a component of those travelling through to the MFP. The MFP proposal may well force a revision of the conclusion of the Gungahlin external travel study, even though it has just been tabled.
If traffic from Gungahlin to the MFP raises questions, a much more serious problem arises with regard to traffic from Belconnen and north Canberra. My examination of the road system shows that Belconnen traffic would tend to flow through Civic while vehicles from north Canberra would tend to use Fairbairn Avenue.
The added traffic on Fairbairn Avenue could possibly influence the timing for Monash Drive, bringing forward construction to a much earlier date than the Gungahlin proposal currently envisages. Whether or not the Monash Drive construction is advanced because of the MFP, the twin pressures of traffic to the Jerrabomberra based MFP upon Civic and the surrounding suburbs from Belconnen and north Canberra would appear to work counter to the Gungahlin study proposals to divert additional vehicles from those areas.
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