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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2759 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

and before they purchased their property, they maintain, they made appropriate and thorough inquiries as to where that road would be. From their inquiries, they advise me, they were of the clear understanding that the road would be at least 90 metres from their back fences. Mr Speaker, one of my constituents has informed me that he actually inquired - - -

Mrs Carnell: Who told them? I am actually quite interested. Was it the real estate agents or was it the Government?

MS FOLLETT: If you are interested, just listen. One of my constituents informed me that he went so far as to visit a government shopfront - the land and planning shopfront - to check up on where that road was going, and he never received any advice saying that it would be within 20 metres of his back fence. Mr Speaker, I believe, given the consistency of what the residents are saying, that there must be some truth to the matter. You could not get such a consistent story being told by all of the affected residents without some truth being present in their version of events, and, frankly, I believe them. Mr Speaker, there is no doubt in my mind that the location of this road has been shifted and that the marker pegs indicating where the road would go, which all of the residents saw before they purchased their properties, are no longer the marker pegs that the Government is using for the location of this road.

Mr Speaker, I want to raise one further matter, and that is the reasons put forward for moving the road closer to my constituents' properties. There are two reasons, basically, as I understand it - second-hand, admittedly - from the consultation that has taken place. The first of those is that the eventual development of the proposed suburb of Crace relies on the availability of land that would otherwise be taken up by Nudurr Drive. Mr Speaker, I simply do not believe this excuse. For one thing, the suburb of Crace is not due for development until well into the next century. In fact, it is due to commence in about 2018. At a public meeting on road planning for North Canberra, which I attended this week, it was apparent that the population projections for the Gungahlin area have been revised downward in a totally dramatic way - from an original projection of about 100,000 people down now to a projection of about 40,000 in the time period that we are looking at. I find it entirely improbable that the entire suburb of Crace will be required to be developed by that time. Frankly, I think the residents who are there now ought to be able to take advantage of that fact.

The other reason that has been put forward, I am told by my constituents, is that Gungahlin has been built to a price and that the residents there simply cannot expect the same level of urban amenity as exists in other areas in Canberra. I reject that totally. Mr Speaker, that position has been put to me in a meeting with members of the Nudurr Drive Action Group as being an accurate reflection of what they were told by departmental officers in consultation with them. It is also a matter that has been made public by another affected resident, quite independently. So, again, the corroboration of those two statements appears to me to lend enormous credibility to the statement. If that is the statement that was made, I think it is utterly reprehensible.

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