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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 1045 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

An appropriate range of commercial activities will be encouraged at each level of the planned hierarchy of civic, town, group and local centres.

• Changes to the pattern of development within commercial centres will be permitted ... subject to consideration of the likely impacts on the planned hierarchy of centres.
• And that the preferred location for major new office developments are town centres or out of centre office sites which are accessible to public transport-

and I stress "which are accessible to public transport"-

This massive new commercial development at the airport answers none of these requirements.

Members may say that it is out of our control-that this is federal land, this is a private organisation. But the very disturbing reality is that Mr Smyth has endorsed this development and happily announced to Ted Quinlan's committee, in answer to a question I asked, that the plan was developed in consultation with the ACT government. This is the same government that is supporting a change of use from commercial to residential for a commercial joint venture at Fern Hill because, and I quote from the preliminary assessment:

This is also the government which claims to be committed to reducing greenhouse emissions but wants to build a freeway for the workers who have to leave Gungahlin every day because there are inadequate employment opportunities in that town centre. There is absolutely no method in their madness, Mr Deputy Speaker.

The last part of my second point is the perception of conflict of interest. Conflict of interest is particularly hard to nail down inside a tiny world like Canberra. It is always perceptions as well as realities that have to be dealt with. While the organisations involved may be technically and legally quite separate, as the legal advice suggests, the actual people involved in the decision-making process may not be quite so separate. It is extra important then to make explicit that any possible conflicts of interest are addressed and resolved.

I will try to explain the various levels there are involved. On the board of CTEC is the general manager of both the Capital Airport Group, which manages the airport, and Canberra International Airport Pty Ltd, which owns the airport lease and is said to be responsible for the Brindabella Business Park development. Both companies are owned by the same business and share staff and phone numbers.

Chair of the CTEC board is the son of one of the Capital Airport Group directors, which is Jim Service. Father and son are business partners and the fee for the son to sit as chair of CTEC and the fee for the father to sit on the board of the Capital Airport Group are both paid into the father and son business, which is JG Service Pty Ltd. (Extension of time granted.) This business happens to be one of the major tenants of Brindabella Park,

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