Page 3518 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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say that we are not. The ACT's budgetary position, as you well understand as Opposition Treasury spokesperson, is a difficult one, and we are simply not in a position to say that we can find money from some pot of gold somewhere to prop them up when Commonwealth funds are withdrawn. If their Commonwealth funding goes, we do not have additional sources of funding to replace that; but we would like to cooperate with Chartwell Crafts to try to help them establish themselves as a successful small business, which is their goal, and perhaps iron out some of the problems they have had in relation to the way they put their program together to attract Commonwealth funding.
Communications Towers
MR LAMONT: My question is directed to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Is it correct that Optus Communications is planning to erect a number of communication towers in the ACT? If so, what consultation has taken place with the ACT Government on this proposal?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, it is correct, and there is a story attached to the way it is happening. Last August, Optus Communications - - -
Mr Kaine: A good answer, Minister; you can sit down now.
MR WOOD: No, you need to hear. This is a quite significant factor. Optus Communications, our second telecommunications carrier, approached my department for the direct sale of sites for base transceiver stations to allow Optus Mobile to link the ACT to its national and international network. Each installation occupies a site of about 100 square metres, within which is a 20-metre tower and a small building. The ACT Government will enter into a licence agreement for their use of nine sites. A further base transmitter station will be installed on the roof of the Department of Administrative Services building in Civic. The licences are for terms of 20 years, with a rental of $5,000 a year for each site, increasing by 5 per cent a year.
However, a disturbing factor in this exercise is that, because of the passage of largely unreported Commonwealth legislation last year, the Optus project is an exempt activity. The Commonwealth Telecommunications Act 1991 exempts telecommunications carriers such as Optus from Territory laws relating to environmental impact assessment and land use planning. This means that Optus can build facilities and transmitters and dig trenches without obtaining approvals, under either the Territory Plan or any other Territory law or obligation.
This exemption - it also applies to AOTC - concerns us as a government and community that jealously guard our reputation for careful planning, for nurturing the environment and for consultation. The legislation requires my department to provide a response to requests for sites, usually within 28 days. The Telecommunications Act therefore makes the decision making process for exempt activities largely dependent on a system of self-assessment conducted by the carrier - in this case Optus. Under this system Optus assesses whether its proposal would affect the environment to a significant extent and whether measures to reduce impacts are required, though they have been required to consult with my department.
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