JOHN DEDMAN PARKWAY PROPOSAL

MS TUCKER (11.25): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to amend Notice No. 3 as indicated by the amendment circulated.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: I move:

That this Assembly calls on the Government to:

(1) take no action that would undermine the ecological, recreational and educational values of the Bruce Ridge, O’Connor Hills, Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie areas;

(2) assure this Assembly that no work or further planning of any kind be carried out on John Dedman East, John Dedman West, or Monash Drive without being considered by the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment; and

(3) carry out a full environmental and social impact assessment of the John Dedman Community Option as outlined in the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the ACT entitled Gungahlin’s Transport Links.

We have moved this motion today as a result of an article in the Canberra Times yesterday. I have been informed since that the Canberra Times misreported the situation and that it is not as the article made it appear; but I am still quite happy to debate the issue of transport for Gungahlin.

The whole affair was looked at in great detail in 1991 by the joint parliamentary committee chaired by John Langmore. That report was called Gungahlin's Transport Links. There was a great deal of community input into that report. The conclusions and recommendations that came out of it should be of interest to everyone in this place. No doubt, the issue will have to be addressed again, as the question of transport for the people of Gungahlin is quite pressing. While I obviously accept the need for roads to be built, it is really very important that these roads not be to the detriment of our unique environment in Canberra or the existing residential amenity of people living in the suburbs between Gungahlin and the city. The report and its recommendations overwhelmingly emphasised that the focus should be on public transport. The Greens and other people in this place also say that very often. Whatever I say about roads, I always want it to be understood that it is public transport that really needs to have the energy put into it.

Over the years of its existence, Canberra's urban environment has been designed to emphasise and complement the city's national landscape setting. Key elements in this setting are the inner hills and ridges which surround and frame the urban areas. The proposal for the east John Dedman Freeway, which is the one that was mentioned in the Canberra Times yesterday, gave absolutely no consideration to the value of the hills,

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