Page 1289 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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housing and/or aged persons units, both urgently needed in Canberra. In the case of Holder there is also a proposed provision for small scale offices for professional suites on the edge of the site opposite the local shops, and in Cook policies have been identified for a number of blocks adjacent to the former school site.
Mr Speaker, the proposals that have been released for comment are the result of a professional assessment of the land uses that may be appropriate now that the schools have closed. In this regard I should emphasise two points. Firstly, the proposed planning policies will allow a range of uses and, secondly, the agreement of planning policies is neither a program for the demolition of the buildings nor a commitment to allocate the sites to any particular function. Essentially they set out to identify the uses which would be appropriate in the broader planning context. This action is not a hasty response to particular current pressures. It is the logical next step in a program to make appropriate use of the sites.
Members may recall that in questions without notice in September last year Mr Moore asked me what stage had been reached in regard to new planning policies for the schools then under consideration for closure. My reply was along the lines that I was not sure of the details but had asked that action be taken quickly to prevent a recurrence of the situation that occurred with the round of school closures put into place by the Commonwealth Government, that is, by the Labor Party. In that case the schools sat around for two years without any resolution of the issues. It was not until the Alliance Government gave the matter priority that new policies were gazetted.
There is therefore no case for claiming that the action is proceeding with undue haste, and that seems to be the thrust of Mr Wood's matter of public importance. It has been our intention from the beginning of this exercise that when any schools were closed action would be taken quickly to identify the ongoing uses for those sites. The issue will certainly be off the agenda, Mr Wood, for the next election - not because we wish to avoid the issue or because we do not believe that our decision was right, but simply because it must be determined long before then in the community interest. In passing I might add that, as a result of our action on the Labor initiated group of school closures, the people of the ACT have now benefited - it has taken three years - from the revenue earned from the sale of part of the former sites at Page and Pearce.
It is instructive to note that the Opposition seems to have adopted two different standards in its approach to this issue - one standard for schools closed by the Labor Commonwealth Government and another for the responsible actions of this Government.
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