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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2741 ..

MRS CARNELL: Mr Moore, we are at this stage seeking advice on this issue, but the Attorney-General believes that he probably will not be in a position to do this.

Mr Humphries: It is not legally possible.

MRS CARNELL: It is not legally possible.

MR WOOD: My question is to Mr Humphries as Minister for Land and Planning. Mr Humphries, could you explain the current status of the Morris application to develop section 41 and whether it is true that the Government may face legal action from them if the development does not proceed? I am not seeking so much a legal opinion here as what the requirements of the Act might hold in this regard.

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mr Wood for that question. The question of section 41 at Manuka is one which, of course, is still a very live and relevant issue to a lot of people in the community. Members will be aware that the proposal to develop the site had moved to the stage where expressions of interest from at least five different organisations had led to the choosing of the Morris Consolidated group as the preferred proponent to proceed with development of that site. The developer in turn was asked to refine the proposal and provide a number of pieces of information, including information on financial capacity to proceed with a development of that kind and details about things like who would be the supermarket tenant on the site. That information was supplied satisfactorily on both counts. Woolworths is to be the occupant of the supermarket site on section 41.

When those details were provided, a conditional offer of lease was made to Morris Consolidated. That offer was conditional on a deposit being paid and a mandatory preliminary assessment being prepared and completed. The Morris group is currently working on the PA of the impact of this proposed development, and it is anticipated that this will be completed by the middle of this month. The PA will be released to the public for at least three weeks for inspection and invitation to comment. Copies of the PA will be available from the PALM shopfront and will also be available in public libraries in the ACT. The availability of the PA will be advertised in the Canberra Times. I understand that the Morris Consolidated group is also talking about erecting some kind of small caravan or office on the section 41 site itself, with copies of plans and other information to indicate what the proposal will look like, to allow people to make comments. Members of the public who have comments on the PA will obviously be asked to send them to PALM and PALM will then assess comments received and make recommendations.

Some members of the community have alleged, including in letters to the newspaper, that there is no consultation period planned from this point in time after the earlier public meetings. That, of course, is quite wrong. The preliminary assessment process is a public consultation exercise. The documentation, which fully addresses all the issues about social, environmental, cultural and other impacts, has to be placed on the table for public consultation, and that will commence as soon as that document is prepared and put before the community.

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