Page 2040 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 5 June 1990
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Royce accommodation because that is not what the Griffin Centre groups want, but cheap, convenient, centrally located accommodation - and unless that can be demonstrated to the satisfaction not of this Opposition but of those community groups themselves, we will be very concerned.
That was not the position at the Griffin Centre the other night at a meeting at which Mr Jensen attended - and I have to give him credit for that. Unless those community groups are satisfied with this proposal, we would be most concerned that it could involve yet another assault on a valuable community asset and, to echo remarks made some minutes ago, yet another attack on the social fabric of Canberra.
MR MOORE (5.06): I think this is a very sad day for the community, and it is a particularly sad day for the Residents Rally, unable to remember what they were originally about. The Canberra Times site was always part and parcel of one of the activities the Residents Rally was involved in. It is a very strange thing indeed that this Government should snub the Supreme Court decision, because that is exactly what has happened and that is how it will be seen.
There is a great deal of rhetoric in Mr Kaine's speech to try to justify the fact that perhaps this has not happened, but the reality of the situation, and the way it will be seen by the court, is quite clearly that the court refused an application and that the Government then overrode that decision. The Government overrode a tremendous amount of time and effort put in by not only members of the court but also members of the community in preparing their affidavits, in preparing their case, in briefing their counsel and in being there through the case. That put a tremendous strain on individual members of the community who were taking a particular stance for the good of the whole community.
The ACT Government publication Environmental Assessments relates to the proposed redevelopment of the former Canberra Times site. It includes a summary of local environmental impacts prepared on behalf of Concrete Constructions by consultants, which concludes that another office block will not make the peak traffic and parking problems much worse than they are already. This is what the Kaine Government, which has been always anxious to bypass the Supreme Court's veto of the proposal, has been waiting to be told. It was commissioned by the Government; they were delighted to see it. Of course, an extra 700 or so workers will not make an immense difference to peak period traffic, the pollution, the parking problems already being encountered by the 28,000 now working in Civic.
Let me point out that this is the size of the original application. The original application to the Supreme Court has not been changed at all. This Government, in looking at the Supreme Court's decision, in dismissing Justice
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