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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2758 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I am aware that, as a member for Molonglo, you yourself wrote to Mr Humphries on 13 June. I do not know whether you have had an answer yet. If you have, I would like a copy.

MR SPEAKER: No.

MS FOLLETT: Mr Cornwell, a member for Molonglo, shakes his head and says that he has not received a reply either. Mr Cornwell, writing as a member for Molonglo, in his letter to the Minister said:

The second matter concerns the consultation process followed for this project. There appear to be both a delay in informing residents and a limit to the number of residents informed, as set out in the Action Group's submission under "Further Concerns".

In view of these inadequate consultation processes and the very valid objections raised to this proposed road as outlined in Design and Siting Application 961518, I strongly support the residents' group in asking for a review of this proposal.

So, it is not just the Labor Opposition that is pointing out a failure of consultation. My Liberal colleague, as member for Molonglo, has done similarly.

It goes further than that. Mr Humphries, who did write one letter on 19 July - this is the only letter on the matter from Mr Humphries that I have been able to track down - wrote to Ms Passaris of Macedon Crescent as follows:

I agree that some aspects of the community consultation on the Development Application have been less than satisfactory in this case -

he concedes that -

and the Department is now reviewing its notification procedures.

So, Mr Speaker, the Minister himself has conceded, at least to one of the residents, that the consultation process has been thoroughly up the creek. What happened, I think, Mr Speaker, was that many of the letters of advice about the proposed design and siting application actually went to the Macedon Crescent residents' former addresses in Belconnen, interstate and so on. But I do not think there is any real excuse for that. The fact of the matter is that there was a major proposal about to affect their amenity in a dramatic way, and they were not consulted upon it. That is the long and the short of it. So, there has been a total failure of consultation.

A second matter I want to draw to attention, Mr Speaker, is the property owners' right to actually get what they believe they are paying for. In the case of many of the members of the Nudurr Drive Action Group, they have informed me that they were well aware that there would be a road going in at the back of their back fences. They knew that,

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