Page 2899 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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MR MOORE (11.42): In 1984, the then commissioner of the NCDC, Tony Powell, signed a far-reaching document about planning in the ACT, the metropolitan policy plan. It is now a statutory document. In the foreword Mr Powell stated:
In the final analysis the crucial judgments to be made about planning are whether or not Canberra provides a large measure of satisfaction as an environment for living so far as its residents are concerned, and as an effective seat of government so far as the Parliament and the executive government are concerned.
This report confirmed the use of the Y plan as a continuing and valid basis for guiding metropolitan development at capacities of up to 400,000 people. The same foreword warned that Civic was fast approaching employment accessibility thresholds and, without major investments in roads, public transport and parking facilities, there would be increasing congestion, air pollution and other adverse environmental impacts. It is no secret that Mr Powell failed to heed his own warnings, and we have witnessed the overdevelopment of office blocks in Civic at the same time as Tuggeranong has been ignored.
Mr Powell resigned before the full extent of what he had started became readily apparent. His replacement, Malcolm Latham, was unfortunately unable to stem the tide of office block development which was swamping Civic. The metropolitan policy plan, in its details, painted a very clear picture of what would happen if certain thresholds were reached. They have been proven correct. Knee-jerk reactions by the NCDC and the then Department of Territories resulted in some extra provisions in public transport and a huge number of surface car parks which decimated a large proportion of City Hill and other green spaces around Civic. This was simply not necessary. All that was required was to stick to the plan that had been prepared by the NCDC itself. Some would have argued that it must have been corruption, that money must have changed hands, but the only corruption that I am aware of is a corruption of personal goals, a weakening to the arguments and approaches of the land speculation and development lobbies.
We are fortunate that we still have the opportunity to save the situation. Over the last few years a small number of voices have been crying in the wilderness, trying to stop this madness, trying to draw it to the attention of the people of Canberra. Those who have raised their voices have suffered scathing criticism for putting their ideas on the advantages of the dispersed town centre system logically and professionally time and again. Thanks to them and a growing number of supporters, the situation is not lost. The Gungahlin external transport study, or GETS, notes:
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