Page 5785 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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On what basis did the Government make its decision, when quite clearly there was some contradiction in terms? To be fair to the ACT Housing Trust and the Planning Authority, there were some changes made to the proposal put forward when the final document was tabled in the house. I have here a copy of a preliminary draft scheme only which provides for eight two-bedroom flats in a two-storey context and a number of single-storey two-bedroom and three-bedroom houses around the edge in accordance with the implementation plan at figure 2. That is fine; the scale is probably not quite as bad as what was originally proposed, but we are still perpetuating the problem - we still have a large concentration of public housing in a suburb that does not have the sorts of facilities that are necessary for this sort of operation.
I also want to refer to a couple of other points that were raised by the community. I might add, Mr Speaker, that I was present with representatives of the community at meetings between the Housing Trust and the Planning Authority, at the request of members of the community who came to seek my assistance. They have presented a submission which I believe all members received a copy of today.
I have already commented on the problem associated with wrong information. The residents seemed to get the impression that it was going to go ahead anyway; that whatever they said did not really matter and that their concerns about safety, residents' welfare, property values, lifestyle and landscape issues, et cetera, were not going to be considered by the planners at all. The general impression they got was that it was a fait accompli.
I admit that there was an attempt by the Housing Trust to take the representatives of the community around the area and look at some other developments. We had to make a couple of phone calls because initially they were prepared to make those visits only during working hours. After a quick phone call to the Minister's office it was decided that it was probably appropriate for these visits to take place after working hours when the representatives of the community had an opportunity - the majority of them are working - to look around some of the other developments in that part of Canberra. I will say thank you on behalf of the residents to the Minister's staff for finally agreeing to those visits.
But, quite frankly, Mr Speaker, I do not believe that that has allayed the concerns of the residents because we are still looking at a rather large concentration of Housing Trust developments in an area not close to facilities. It is not near Erindale, for example. All the sorts of facilities that you need for a public sector housing development are provided at a location like Erindale, so it is quite appropriate. You have doctors, you have dentists,
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