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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2234 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

hiding its decision because, quite clearly, once in the public notices of the Canberra Times, everyone who pays attention would be aware of it. Equally, the decision to release land in east O'Malley through advertisement is no different from the process undertaken in relation to the release of any other site in Canberra.

The Labor Party went to the previous election indicating that it would review the appropriateness of the release of sites such as east O'Malley in the context of a pending review of Action Plan 10, and that is what I, as Minister for Planning, did. In fact, I deliberately delayed the original release date for this site. I delayed the decision to go to auction of this site. This site was originally due to be auctioned much earlier this year.

I deliberately delayed that decision so that the government and I, as the responsible minister for the release of the site, could consider the issues raised by conservation groups and in the context of our commitment before the election to review the proposals to release such sites. That is what I did. I took detailed advice from Environment ACT, I met with the Friends of Grasslands about the issue and I spoke informally with a number of other people in the conservation movement in an attempt to make sure that I was properly informed about the range of issues. On balance, Mr Speaker, the government has taken a decision that, having reviewed the appropriateness of the release of this site, we still believe it should be released, and that resulted in the advertisement in last Saturday's Canberra Times.

The possible development of this land, as has been outlined by Ms Tucker, was first identified by the NCDC in 1976 as part of a structured plan for O'Malley, and this planning policy was incorporated into the Territory Plan when that took effect in 1993. The east O'Malley area of O'Malley was not developed at the time because, as Ms Tucker has indicated, noise and vibration impacts from the then operating quarry on Mount Mugga Mugga were of significant concern.

The release of this land has, of course, been forecast for some time. It was first flagged in the residential/commercial land release program for 1999/2000. It was noted that the east O'Malley site was subject to environmental planning and engineering assessment to determine its suitability for release. The environmental significance of this area has been considered as part of Action Plan 10 and parameters were proposed for residential development. Action Plan 10 saw approximately 42 hectares being excised from the residential land area and incorporated into the Mount Mugga Mugga reserve as part of Canberra Nature Park.

The studies into the development of the east O'Malley estate which were initiated under the previous government commenced in May last year, coordinated through Planning and Land Management. In addition to considering the environmental issues associated with the land, the studies looked at matters such as traffic, stormwater, sewer and impact on the surrounding area. These studies led to the preparation of a draft development control plan, which was distributed to the conservation council and all O'Malley households and discussed at a community forum held in late October 2000. A variety of concerns were raised as a result of this consultation, which resulted in further studies being initiated.

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