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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2421 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

The first area that came to my notice was in Chuculba Crescent in Giralang. There, trucks in excess of 30 tonnes are being diverted down a residential street, past crossings that lead directly to the school.

Since then, from talking with constituents and just driving around the place, I have discovered many other places where trucks, in excess of 25 or 30 tonnes, are being diverted down residential streets-and especially down Ratcliffe Street in Florey, past the Florey Primary School. I believe this is an entirely inappropriate use of our road system and have asked the minister to address this as a matter of urgency. I am waiting for a response on this because it is a matter of safety. We should not have to send our children to school where they have to cross a street, perhaps against a 30-tonne truck. I look forward with eager anticipation to the minister's solution to this problem.

I could not talk about the Estimates Committee report without mentioning issues relating to planning. I will touch briefly on some of those. The committee has recommended that we must solve the problems in relation to putting into reserve the precious yellow gum red box grassy woodlands at east O'Malley. The recommendation of the committee also reflects the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment-that, as a matter of urgency, we must address the reserve in relation to east O'Malley. (Extension of time granted.) When the issue of the reserve in relation to east O'Malley is addressed, perhaps the residents of east O'Malley will feel much more confident about any land development that might happen there.

We touched at length on the Gungahlin Drive extension. It has not been mentioned here today, Mr Speaker, but it was like extracting teeth. Mr Hargreaves spoke about a dental job. Well, it was like extracting teeth, but we did eventually have some evidence of the minister coming clean about the program and the timetabling for the Gungahlin Drive extension. We saw the culmination of that here today, when the minister admitted that he misled members of the Assembly in June in relation to answers to questions. I thank the minister for his apology, although I have concerns about his use of the word "inadvertent".

The committee was so concerned about the lack of clarity and the lack of forthcoming information that it has made a specific recommendation about keeping the Assembly and, through the Assembly, the people of the ACT, informed about progress on Gungahlin Drive, which is an important piece of infrastructure.

The people of Aranda have again been gypped in this report. I would like to have seen a recommendation in relation to Caswell Drive. The minister has said he has no intention of opening negotiations with the National Capital Authority about the relocation of Caswell Drive. I would like to have seen a recommendation here to ask the minister to do that but, unfortunately, that did not see the light of day. I am concerned that some members of the committee prefer to put plants before people and not even explore the possibility of the relocation of Caswell Drive.

On the matter of the Planning and Land Bill, which the chairman has already spoken about, the recommendation is to have the land act reviewed, in concert with the consideration of the Planning and Land Bill. It is imperative that this Assembly receives all the consequential amendments and that it have a detailed picture of the full impact of this piece of legislation before it is finally debated in this place.

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