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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 464 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

That the Commonwealth Government, State, Territory and local governments initiate comprehensive information, education and consultation programs to improve community understanding of, and participation in, the transport related aspects of ESD. Particular priority should be given to programs that encourage a discriminating and responsible use of transport and of non-renewable transport fuels.

We are aware that the Economic Development Committee's report, "`The Future of Airports in Australia' Conference", does touch on the issue of environmental impacts, particularly noise pollution, but the terms of reference for the consultancy do not mention the environmental impacts at all. Mr Kaine thought they were wide-ranging, but we would like them to be a little wider. We would like to see a much greater emphasis on the environmental impact. As they stand now, they relate to "strategic financial marketing facilities". We had yesterday in the Assembly an embarrassing admission from Mr De Domenico that he had overlooked putting a representative from the peak environment group onto the group, although we were glad to see that the community representative had been put on. We hope that these two representatives will ensure that there is a much greater focus on the environmental and community impact of any proposals.

We are not talking about just noise. We are also talking about grasslands, our most threatened ecosystem in the ACT. The airport does have to be studied before there are any plans for expansion. There is also a population of legless lizards. It appears that the Majura end of the runway is the most likely to be environmentally sensitive. The question of traffic to and from the airport is significant. Everyone is already aware of noise, but I would not say that it was the only environmental concern. There is also the question of aircraft emissions and ESD principles being integrated into transport decisions.

Obviously, this is a matter that local government has little control over. However, it can take responsibility, by working with other States and the Federal Government, and look at how we can, as a nation, make our transport systems as environmentally friendly as possible. We can make decisions locally which will represent best practice in environmental terms. We cannot continue to throw up our hands and say, "It is too hard".

The only thing that is encouraging in the objectives in the terms of reference is the development of community service obligations. We have not seen, to date, any development of these obligations which are sufficiently integrating environmental costs. I think an interesting exercise for the Transport Reform Advisory Committee, as part of developing strategies for Canberra and surrounding regions, would be to look at developing a hierarchy of transport options according to their environmental impact. We hope to see some very positive recommendations coming out of the airport study steering group, working with a consultant, so that we do have a very thorough investigation of all options before any decisions are made.

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