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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2691 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

In total, 534 submissions were received in response to the draft variation. Of these, eight submissions supported the proposals; 483 were form letters or form emails opposing the route to the east of the Australian Institute of Sport, preferring a western alignment; and 23 of these form submissions included additional comments from a standard draft. The remaining 43 submissions opposing the eastern alignment included comments on many of the issues which the form letters and form emails addressed, but added a range of additional issues.

Following the public consultation process, the draft variation was revised. This involved deleting the intertown public transport route south of the Bruce athletics track and linking to Belconnen Way and Barry Drive between the O'Connor hills and Bruce Ridge, replacing the ITP alternative route near the Bruce athletics tracks to that part of the future Gungahlin Drive extension alignment east of Calvary Hospital, and removing the "R" (subject to review) overlay applying to the adjoining land between the Gungahlin Drive extensions road reserve and the Kaleen residential areas.

The time has come to make a decision and move forward. I now table variation No 138 to the Territory Plan, concerning the Gungahlin Drive extension.

I turn to the Legislative Assembly's resolution on the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the World Trade Organisation. The first part of the resolution requested the government to table documents that detail the development of the ACT government's position on GATS and the World Trade Organisation. I have tabled those documents, which show that the ACT government has not yet developed a formal position on GATS and/or the World Trade Organisation.

It is important to emphasise here that these are treaty matters coming under the external affairs power of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has committed itself to wide consultation on these issues and has established several consultative mechanisms to provide an opportunity for state and territory governments, non-government organisations and members of the community to provide input to Australia's trade position. These mechanisms include regular public consultations, inquiries into Australia's trade position managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and establishing a World Trade Organisation advisory group with representatives from the business, non-government, academic and union sectors.

The options for ACT government participation include the national trade consultations and input to relevant inquiries conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The latter is in the final point of intergovernment consultation prior to Australia's ratification of any international agreement.

The ACT government acknowledges that some people have concerns with GATS and will take these issues into consideration when developing a position for input to the consultative process. While the ACT government has not developed a formal position on GATS, it has been generally supportive of the federal government's approach to continuing the process of trade liberalisation. In the case of GATS, the benefits to the ACT community are expected to be very positive.

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