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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3948 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

These people, in the weeks that they have had the opportunity to look at these proposals, have raised a number of objections. They have raised the fact that they want time to consider the whole proposal and what it is going to mean to their suburb, whether they are a home owner, a private renter or a public renter. As an Assembly, we should listen to what the community in Ainslie are saying and ensure that their concerns, the issues they raise, are considered in any process that is part of this Assembly. I ask for support for this amendment.

MS HORODNY (11.41): Mr Speaker, this is a complex issue, and it has become even more so. Mr Humphries talked a little bit about the process to date. The reason why we have put these amendments to Mr Moore's original motion is that we wanted the Minister for Planning, Mr Humphries, to confirm or deny what his bureaucrats said at the public meeting on Sunday. Constantly - I do not know how many times, perhaps at least six or seven times - the individuals who were running that meeting said that the strategic development options for Ainslie and O'Connor had no status; that that plan had been withdrawn. What we hear from Mr Humphries is that that plan is not actually being withdrawn; that that plan, to the level of detail to which it has been developed, right down to the nuts and bolts of the look and feel and detail and development of Ainslie, does still have status; that that is the plan that the Government will be looking at and talking about with residents.

The meeting was a very positive meeting, I feel, because there were certain things that the meeting was very united about. They were issues to do with Housing Trust tenants in the suburb and also to do with the process that had been set down. The residents were very happy with the process that now has been set down. It includes things like questionnaires which are being sent out to residents of Ainslie and which are due for consideration in mid-February. There is then planned to be a public meeting and a review of the process to that date - again, that is in mid-February - at which meeting there will be small groups. The meeting will break into small groups and there will be discussion about substantive issues to do with the development of Ainslie.

I think there was one individual at that meeting who stood up and proposed that there be no change to Ainslie. That was one individual. I think it was well recognised that that was not an option. No-one really believes that there should be no change to Ainslie. Things are changing all the time, and that is well accepted. What Mr Humphries said is true. Changes are occurring now, at this very moment, within Ainslie and within other suburbs of the ACT, but particularly in Ainslie, without any overall plan for how the suburb should look and feel in 20 or 30 years' time. So the idea of getting residents together, getting planners together and getting the Government together and looking very carefully and sensitively at what some of the options are for development and redevelopment in the ACT is a good thing. The problem, of course, is that the proposal was put to the people at a late stage in that it was very well developed. Mr Humphries says, "The consultation came afterwards"; but, of course, that is not the place for consultation. Consultation needs to be worked on while a proposal is being put together and while a development is being looked at.

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