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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3504 ..

Amaroo Community Precinct

MR QUINLAN: My question is addressed to the Minister for Urban Services. I hope he will clarify a matter for me. I have had some calls from some upset residents in Burdekin Avenue, Amaroo, regarding the proposed community precinct. Can the minister tell the Assembly why a letterbox drop last week revealed that three schools and a community shopping centre have been relocated, contrary to the original design and I think actually contrary to the shading within the PALM Internet site as we speak. Can the minister tell the Assembly how this has been allowed to go ahead without thorough, proper community consultation, and is the plan open to comment by the public or is it the case, as PALM stated in a forum last week, that this proposal is a fait accompli? What sort of consultation are we operating when people are informed only after the decision has been made?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, again we put forward premises without understanding the Territory Plan. The area that Mr Quinlan refers to has an overlay on it that says that it is open and it is subject to future development-that what is put there is indicative only and that its use will be determined at a later date. It is set out in the Territory Plan. The process that determines greenfields sites and their development is set out in the Territory Plan-oddly enough, the Territory Plan that Bill Wood put in place in 1993. We are following that procedure now. Further work has been done. It has been decided to change some areas. That is now being presented to the community for comment.

MR QUINLAN: I have a supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Assembly what tenders have been called for the site, and why were residents told at a meeting supposedly designed for consultation with residents that the decision was in fact made and set in concrete three years ago-and yet the PALM web site indicates that the community precinct areas are in a completely different place to the one in which they are being constructed?

MR SMYTH: Again, Mr Speaker, this might be one of the areas that Mr Corbell refers to as some of Labor's past planning mistakes that Bill Wood as the previous planning minister might have got wrong. There is a process for greenfields sites. There are overlays. If you want, we can always arrange briefings for those opposite that do not understand the Territory Plan that they put in place in 1993. I am always happy to arrange that. There are always changes in greenfields sites. The indicative plans that are laid out are amended in accordance with the Territory Plan. We are now going through that process.

Mr Quinlan makes some assertion on things that PALM is meant to have said. I was not at the meeting so I cannot comment on that. I will check and find out when this work was done and bring that answer back to the Assembly.

Urban Open Space

MR CORBELL: My question also is directed to the Minister for Urban Services. I ask the minister whether he can explain the following statement in the ACT Land Stock Assessment-Evaluation of Vacant/Unleased land in the Weston Creek District, a report prepared by your department:

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