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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (14 October) . . Page.. 3115 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

undermined by its access route via Red Hill Drive. This approach by the Government and its planning agency also completely ignores the reasoning behind Territory Plan principle 2.1 that townships will be discrete areas separated by hills, ridges and buffers. The Federal Golf Club proposal places the residential area in one township, Woden, but links it physically to another, inner Canberra. This can only be seen as completely contrary to the rationale for discrete townships as outlined by this principle.

Principle 3.6 of the Territory Plan states:

The importance of this principle is that it reduces reliance on the private motor vehicle and places higher densities of residential living close to shops, community facilities and public transport, providing ease of access and ensuring their viability in the longer term.

You can only say that the proposal to vary the Territory Plan to allow for the residential complex at the Federal Golf Club is in complete breach of this principle. It will, by its designer's own admissions, be a residential island. It will rely entirely upon the private motor vehicle for transport, as was conceded by PALM in advice to the committee, and it is a proposal which will not meet the objectives of the Territory Plan to reduce private motor vehicle use. This is from a government which has signed-up greenhouse targets to reduce emissions.

This inconsistency was further confirmed by advice from PALM that they had interpreted the draft variation proposal as consistent with principle 3.6 - that is, accessible to service facilities - because access would be by private motor vehicle. If that is the principle we are going to apply, it does not matter where we build things, as long as you can get there by car. Access to facilities is not an issue. That fundamentally ignores some good planning guidelines.

The Government has failed to look at the experience of related golf course residential estates which were built on the basis of private motor vehicle access alone. When questioned about the experience of the Gleneagles Estate at the Murrumbidgee Country Club, which was approved on the basis that no public transport services would be provided, PALM conceded they had not considered it. Yet the experience at Gleneagles shows us that constant lobbying from residents of the estate resulted in ACTION providing a service, even though it is a relatively isolated and inefficient location for public transport purposes. The prospect of such a situation arising at the Federal development, should it proceed, cannot be ruled out. Again, this scenario highlights the flawed nature of this proposal in the context of the Territory Plan.

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