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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (6 December) . . Page.. 3735 ..

MR QUINLAN (11.23): Mr Speaker, I notice the minister mentioned in his speech that, as a former resident of Curtin, he had witnessed the chain of events that led to the flooding. I happen to be a former resident of Hurley Street - No 86 Hurley Street - and I used to enjoy being able to take the bike straight out through the gate in the back fence and pedal up to Woden or even to Civic to work.

I can inform the government, in case they do not know, that there was at that time - and I know through friends in the area that there still is - a genuine sense of community in that part of Mawson. The whole neighbourhood would come together at the bonfires that used to be lit at the back of the place where I lived, just as they have come together in more recent times to protest against the proposed development a little north of their bonfire spot and a little to the west of the townhouse development - it is probably not the best townhouse development in the ACT - that heads up to Hindmarsh Drive.

I have seen the plans for the Mawson redevelopment. I am not going to argue against this redevelopment on the basis that it might be on a flood plain or that there might be endangered species. The plan is appalling. You only have to take a 30 - second look at the plan to see that the northern half of this proposed development is an attempt to cram in and maximise housing and to create damn near an immediate slum. So, from my perspective, the plan ought to be scrapped because it is a rotten plan.

The minister referred to the fact that he was advised by his department of the capacity of Hurley Street. The residents of Hurley Street told me that some measurement devices had been placed on Hurley Street to track the traffic possibly as a part of this exercise - by the sound of it, this was a little late in the game. But the devices were not left in place for the full cycle. They were not left in Hurley Street for a full week. So the information that was provided is incomplete. Of course, the people who that live in Hurley Street are quite aware of the fact that this process of measurement appeared to be more a case of window dressing than a genuine attempt to measure traffic.

I guess you have to know Hurley Street. It has got a couple of bumps and rises and quite a number of bends. It is not a wide street and any time you drive into it you will find cars parked. In more recent times quite an amount of truck traffic has been using Hurley Street. Ainsworth Street, which is probably the major feeder above Hurley Street, has been equipped with traffic calming devices. There are also schools nearby. Truckies coming from the north end of town who do not want to have to meander through the chicanes on Ainsworth Street or slow down for the 40 kilometres an hour school zone are cutting through Hurley Street.

So when you talk about the number of vehicles, it would be intelligent to measure the number of trucks as a percentage of through traffic that uses Hurley Street. This street has become a major feeder to the Mawson group centre.

I do not blame developers around Canberra for doing what developers do and trying to exploit to the maximum any available plot that they might be able to seek out. I do not know what the genesis of this Mawson development is but on paper at least the development - particularly the northern part - does not look good.

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