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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 3372 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Ridge area. The road travels through existing areas of Canberra Nature Park along the entire length of its alignment between Ginninderra Drive and Belconnen Way. This is acknowledged by the government because it itself, in the variation before us today, is proposing to adjust the boundaries of the area of Canberra Nature Park to make way for its road alignment. The alignment does come directly onto the area of Canberra Nature Park along the length of Bruce and O'Connor Ridge.

The government's alignment will result in a direct impact on the recreational, cultural and environmental amenity of the Bruce and O'Connor Ridge area. This is an area widely recognised for its diversity as a nature conservation area, particularly for a range of bird and wildflower species. These issues were broadly examined during the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services' inquiry into this issue.

The reserve is far from the rubbish dump which some people favouring the government's preferred alignment had sought to characterise it as. Indeed, the area used to have a dump, but that area is nowhere near either the western or the eastern alignments. What is near the eastern alignment is an area widely used by cyclists, park care workers, walkers, runners and other athletes from the AIS. The Bruce and O'Connor Ridge areas provide a quiet, peaceful and diverse area of bush in our bush capital. The government's proposal threatens the integrity of this area on all of the grounds I have just outlined.

Mr Speaker, the government has also raised the prospect of impacts on grassland areas close to Kaleen if the western alignment proceeds. The reality is that the western alignment has the room needed to permit variations to its route to avoid this important site. In contrast, the eastern alignment also has an area of endangered grassland which will be affected by the government's alignment. This was highlighted in the Maunsell preliminary assessment at figure 3.2 of their report. Unlike the western alignment, which has a wide enough corridor to avoid the Kaleen grassland area, the eastern alignment is closely confined by its topography and cannot be re-routed to avoid this environmentally important area. The western alignment does have an impact on the Bruce Ridge area, but, in contrast to the government's alignment, the impact occurs at the edge of the Bruce/O'Connor Ridge area rather than along the entire length of the two ridges.

Noise impacts will be confined to the edge of the nature park area with the western alignment, as will the construction impact. Retaining the ridge for the wide range of recreational, social and environmental uses that it currently accommodates, along with the retention of its broader environmental values, can only be achieved by development of the western alignment, and that can only be achieved, Mr Speaker, by the passage of this disallowance motion today.

Mr Speaker, the government has argued that the western alignment will also have an adverse impact on the arrangements for the Bruce complex and the AIS, and on the residents of Kaleen. I would like to address these issues in some detail also.

The alignment for the western community option does impact on some of the car parking area at the front of the AIS, but this area was designated by the AIS itself for future commercial development in its own master plan for the area. This was made clear by representatives of the AIS to the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services' inquiry into this issue last year. The AIS itself wants to develop the car parks at the front of the AIS for commercial purposes.

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