Page 137 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 17 February 1993
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Government has already decided that the Acton Peninsula will be used, amongst other things, for a series of residential towers, a medium density urban village, and so forth. I do not say this lightly. I shall quote from a letter from the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, of 11 June 1992, to the current Prime Minister, Mr Paul Keating, in which she said:
It is the ACT Government's belief that the Peninsula area presents an unparalleled opportunity in the long term for the development of an urban village, based on a mix of medium and high density housing with ancillary commercial and tourist facilities. The urban village concept would have as a principal objective the retention of significant areas of the Peninsula for recreational use by the people of Canberra.
Madam Speaker, I think the fears that people have on how Acton Peninsula is going to be used are verified by this letter of Ms Follett's of June 1992 - prior to the announcement of the charrette, prior to the announcement of a competition and public consultation on how the peninsula should be used. I will read on a little further so that I am not misrepresenting the Chief Minister. She said:
The ACT Government also believes that the opportunity should remain for the provision on the Peninsula of public health facilities ...
She specified them more or less as they are in the motion. The reality is that the people of Canberra generally would be very uneasy at the notion of high density. I think it is important to understand what we mean by "high density". When planners use the words "high density" they mean what we find in the Kingston towers.
Ms Follett: It is already there. Go and have a look at Sylvia Curley House.
MR MOORE: The Chief Minister interjects that high density housing is already there with Sylvia Curley House. Some could interpret that to be so. If you talked about high density accommodation, that would be a suitable way to describe Sylvia Curley House. However, I think high density housing would not be an appropriate way to describe Sylvia Curley House.
Members: Oh!
MR MOORE: I hear the Liberal and Labor members pooh-poohing this notion, but the reality is that Ms Follett's letter clearly pre-empted what was going to happen on that site and pre-empted the discussion on that site. They clearly have an agenda for the Acton Peninsula to turn it into an urban village, and that is a secondary concern for the people of Canberra. The first and primary concern is about health facilities, which we will resolve in the next little while.
The reality is that the people of Canberra are going to feel cheated again by the Labor Government when this happens. They felt cheated when Mr Berry announced that he was not going to reopen Royal Canberra Hospital. He had the funds to do it. He could have done it. He chose not to do it. He relied on a report that he claimed said that there was no other choice, but any reasonable reading of the report showed that he did have a choice to retain Royal Canberra Hospital and he decided to close it. The people of Canberra on this issue felt cheated by Mr Berry and the Labor Government reneging in the First Assembly, and I believe that they will feel cheated on this issue as well.
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