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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 140 ..

MR HIRD (4.16): Mr Speaker, the provision for a road to the west of North Canberra to provide access to and from Gungahlin has long been an element of Canberra's planning, as the Minister indicated earlier, and is referred to in a document called The Future Canberra dated 1965 and in the Metropolitan Canberra Policy Plan of 1984. It has been around for something like 32 years. The Gungahlin external travel study of 1984, which Minister Humphries referred to, was commenced by the old NCDC and was completed by the National Capital Authority, and it confirmed the need for a link and resulted in two possible routes being identified. The NCA preferred the route to the east of the Australian Institute of Sport. An alternative route was developed by a number of community groups who were active in that process at that time, and it was to the west of the area.

The report of the Joint Committee on the ACT's inquiry into Gungahlin's transport links also supported the need for the road and recommended that a detailed environmental impact assessment be made of the two options. The committee also recommended against the construction of the proposed extension of the road to Clunies Ross Street between the Australian National Botanic Gardens and the Black Mountain CSIRO complex. So this project has been around and a lot has been said. There is, as Ms McRae said, some concern on the part of many constituents in Belconnen, O'Connor and Gungahlin that as it develops this may or may not affect them.

Considerable consultation has taken place and it will continue. An initial public information session was held on Wednesday, 20 November last year, at the AIS to inform members of the public, and particularly people living adjacent to the potential corridors, about the study and the public consultation process associated with it, and to seek participants in a series of future workshops on various aspects of the study. The first of three workshops was held on Saturday, 7 December last year. This involved invited participants drawn from a list of people who attended the November public meeting, together with stakeholder representatives. The focus was on the city-wide transport implications of Canberra's growth, particularly that of the Gungahlin district. One outcome of this workshop was a list of additional alternatives that participants identified as warranting further study. These included, for example, building the Majura Parkway and Horse Park Drive link around the east of Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie, widening William Slim Drive and Gundaroo Drive, and providing a western ring road west of Belconnen and linking it into an extended William Hovell Drive. The Minister touched on this, and this has problems. I am surprised that the Greens would support such a proposal. My mind is open. It would add significantly to travelling time and fuel costs, thereby having an adverse effect on the environment. However, the needs of the people of Gungahlin have to be taken into consideration by this Government, and they will be.

A second workshop, at which the strategic context of the study was reiterated, was held last Saturday. It focused on the local assessment of options, confirming that all criteria of concern to affected residents and stakeholders had been identified and taken into account in this study. A third workshop, scheduled for mid-April, will focus on the preliminary evaluation of such options. Following the final workshop, the consultants will prepare a preliminary assessment which will then be considered for determination of the need for further environmental assessment and which will be released for public comment as required by the Land Act.

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