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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2441 ..
MR WOOD (continuing):
consultation. Let me spell it out. Mr Cornwell, to satisfy you, I can give you lots of details.
The board of the Gungahlin Development Authority, of which the president of the Gungahlin Community Council is a member, provided a greenfields site adjacent to the town centre for those 20 one-bedroom units, worth over $2 million. The decision to provide the site was made at the August 2001 meeting of the authority, a meeting at which the president of the Gungahlin Community Council, Mr Ruecroft, was present, so one presumes he was well aware of it.
I am advised that the board of the authority has been updated on the project at each subsequent meeting. The project was highlighted on the display board of the Gungahlin Development Authority in the Gungahlin Marketplace. The display, I am told, was in place for approximately three months early this year, so that consultation has been continuing on the last two points that I made. The boarding house project is an excellent project which was commenced by the previous government and which we are very happy to continue.
It responds to broader consultation by listening to the poverty task force, the youth housing task force and the Legislative Assembly Health and Community Care Committee inquiry into elder abuse that highlighted the lack of medium to long-term boarding-style accommodation. There has been extensive consultation with groups beyond Gungahlin but also, of course, open to anybody from that sector, including ACTCOSS, ACT Shelter, CCHOACT, Mental Health Consumer Network and providers of community housing in determining the functional requirements of the building.
The Gungahlin Regional Community Service, a local body, has been part of the consultations and their valuable contribution will continue. Indeed, a briefing on the project for community agencies-I should think the Queanbeyan council would be one of those-was provided at the offices of the Gungahlin Regional Community Service three weeks ago.
The brief has been expressed now as an initial design which complies in every aspect with the development conditions of the Gungahlin Development Authority. The architect tender advertised in the Canberra Times of 3 August is to continue the design work in further consultation with the community and in compliance with building codes and the like. As the project is not due for completion for another year, any concerns held by the community council and anybody else about parking and other issues can be considered through the consultations in this next phase of development. The executive of the community council was briefed on the project two weeks ago and the project was generally well-received. I think that there has been a pretty good outcome all the way through in the way of consultation.
MS MacDONALD: Minister, I note that you mentioned consultation with the Mental Health Consumer Network. What were the outcomes of the consultation?
MR WOOD
: Mr Speaker, that is relevant in terms of what Mr Stanhope has just been saying and what is on the front page of the Canberra Times this morning. I can tell you that the discussions have been fruitful and we will start to address the issue of a lack of boarding houses for people with a mental illness. In response to community need for
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