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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 559 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

Approximately 22,000 people today call Gungahlin home ... Ultimately Gungahlin will be Canberra's largest town centre with an expected population of 100,000 residents.

Minister Corbell was illustrating that eventually Gungahlin will be the home of up to one-third of Canberra. According to the Minister for Planning, our single largest development will be Gungahlin. Wouldn't logic dictate that the place that our first light rail system should be located is Gungahlin? Gungahlin is unique. It is unique because it is so new, it is unique because it is the most remote urban development in the territory and it is unique because it has inadequate services to meet the growing needs of the burgeoning population.

The minister has proposed two amendments to Ms Tucker's motion. The first addresses substitution of the word "recommendation"for "proposal"in paragraph (2) of Ms Tucker's motion. I find that amendment acceptable and understand that it is acceptable to Ms Tucker as well.

The second amendment proposed by the minister changes the substance of the motion entirely. Ms Tucker was quite right to call on the government to make the public transport needs of Gungahlin residents the first priority for its sustainable transport plan.

I support the motion moved by Ms Tucker and reject the minister's second amendment. In doing so, I ask the minister to clarify that Gungahlin will be the first priority in the government's sustainable transport plan.

MS MacDONALD (4.34): I will be brief. I would like to thank Ms Tucker for having moved this motion. I have risen to speak in support of both of the minister's amendments and to disagree with what Mrs Cross has just said. If the third paragraph of Ms Tucker's motion were to be implemented, it would mean that Gungahlin was being given special status over the rest of the ACT. I am into equity and equality in the ACT. I would also mention, of course, that I am one of the members for Brindabella. Therefore, I would hate to see my electorate being treated as though it was a second-class citizen in comparison with other parts of Canberra.

But I will say, Mr Speaker, the leaflet I put out while I was doorknocking and speaking to people around my electorate, specifically in the south Woden suburbs, during the election of 2001 talked about the issue of light rail. I am a proponent of light rail. I can say that, having had the opportunity last year to spend time with my new husband overseas, I got to experience many of the wonderful light rail systems around the world. I think that Canberra definitely needs to have a light rail system implemented.

Obviously, we could not do that all at once, because implementing light rail costs a lot of money, but we do need to do it on a plan and we cannot say that one area should be treated as a priority over another. Going back to my point, when I was campaigning I actually had the issue of light rail on the agenda in my pamphlet and I can say that when I was speaking to people in my area I found that they were extremely enthusiastic about the idea of light rail and extremely enthusiastic about light rail actually coming to their areas, because they get very frustrated with the-

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