Page 805 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 April 1994
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MS ELLIS (3.45): I want to make a few very brief comments in relation to report No. 23 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee. The emphasis I want to put on the deliberations within the committee as I saw them is in relation to the precursor to our inquiry. Over the last few months, and into last year particularly, we were able as a committee to visit Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne and have a very good look at the work being done on urban design, particularly in relation to the reurbanisation of some areas. I found that particularly valuable because it gave us a comparison other than the one we see in the ACT.
Even though we can be very proud of Canberra, and I know that we all are, there has also been some fairly strong comment in recent times concerning some of the designs we have seen emerging in our urban environment. The comparison I am now able to make, when I think of some of the excellent work we were able to see, is invaluable. Might I add that we also saw some not so excellent work. Some very good urban renewal work has been undertaken in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, and seeing that has helped to broaden my vision of what we can expect in the area of design excellence.
In the area of the B1 guidelines, where that applies geographically, we have the opportunity to do it right. We have an opportunity over the next few decades, because that is the prediction of the time necessary for this sort of work, to ensure that there is not any rush, there is not any panic, and there is an ability to do it correctly, properly and with consideration for many people. There must be consideration particularly for the residents who already live there, the residents who may decide to stay in their little houses within the area the guidelines affect. I have every confidence that we can say to those people, "You should have confidence that, as far as the committee is concerned, we have done everything we can to emphasise the need for design excellence, for consideration of the area".
The other aspect I want to raise is that, because of the geographic location of this area, there are implications for the ACT presentationally. It is an important area; it is the northern entry into Canberra City, and there are some aspects we needed to consider there. In relation to the design excellence questions, the sorts of things we were looking at - architecture, landscape foreground and landscape background particularly - may seem fairly esoteric; but, when you get into the inquiry level and you think carefully about what we had to consider and the depth to which we went in considering these aspects of design excellence and what needs to be considered to produce that, I personally feel confident that we have given this set of guidelines very careful and deep consideration. We have taken into account everything brought to our attention through the public inquiry process and through the submission process, and I am optimistic that the results that will emerge over the coming decades will be what we expect them to be.
I think we have to commend our process for allowing us to put in the effort the committee collectively put into ensuring that confidence. The assistance and advice we got from the planners and the Planning Authority was very valuable, as was the input from
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