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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (11 March) . . Page.. 870 ..
operations of ACT Forests are finished, State Forests of NSW will supply ACT Forests customers with logs from their own plantations. This extra log supply will ensure that ACT sawmills will be able to operate for up to three years, once this supply ceases.
This partnership is an example of the camaraderie and the innovation, as well as the competition, which exists in this industry. I am very grateful for what they have done.
Gungahlin Drive extension
MRS DUNNE
: My question is to the Minister for Planning, Mr Corbell. It refers to Gungahlin Drive extension.Mr Wood
: About time.MRS DUNNE
: I have been keeping you on tenterhooks. Now that the issue of whether the route of Gungahlin Drive should be east or west has been resolved, when will you begin work on building the road? How many lanes will be built? When do you plan to finish the road?MR CORBELL
: I have been waiting for a question on Gungahlin Drive extension for quite some time. I was disappointed. I thought I was going to go through another question time without a single question. I am greatly relieved that Mrs Dunne has put me out of my misery.The opposition would be aware, as would all members, of the government's stated position in relation to Gungahlin Drive extension and the announcement I made on behalf of the government late last year. The government is now proceeding with the necessary planning work that is required to construct the road on the eastern alignment. This includes ensuring that the road is built as far as possible away from the Bruce and
O'Connor Ridge area of Canberra Nature Park.
It is a fundamentally flawed view on the part of the National Capital Authority that the interests of the Australian Institute of Sport are more important than the landscape setting of the national capital. It is a failure on the part of the National Capital Authority to uphold its statutory responsibilities and to take account of the appropriate planning framework and landscape setting of Canberra as the national capital.
There is not a single consideration of the impact on Bruce and O'Connor Ridge in all the National Capital Authority's assessment of the eastern alignment. All of the analysis is about the Australian Institute of Sport. It is little wonder that this is the case when the Liberal Party and its agents work on this issue day and night. It is probably worth highlighting the fact that Mr Gary Kent is a senior adviser to Mr Wilson Tuckey, the minister for territories. What does Mr Kent do outside his work time? He just happens to be the divisional president of the Liberal Party in the ACT.
Any assertion from those opposite that this was not political is groundless. Quite clearly, this has been a political decision from the outset. The Liberals locally and federally have simply sought to exercise their political muscle to overcome the election commitment of a democratically elected government.
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