Page 3449 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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within the Australian Capital Territory under a $1 billion commonwealth-sponsored project, and I look forward to a positive outcome to that application.
The ACT government supplies the regional management framework for formal cross-border arrangements between the ACT and New South Wales governments in relation to cross-border water issues. These are significant ongoing issues and we have managed to successfully negotiate a range of agreements and arrangements in relation not just to cross-border water but more important issues that dictate the use of water and determine the use of water in cross-border regional settlement agreements and cross-border planning strategies.
The ACT government participates fully in relation to all these fora. Indeed, through our own work within the territory in the development of our own water strategy, we are actively pursuing a secure water future for the Australian Capital Territory.
Sustainable transport plan
MS PORTER: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Planning. Minister, last week you launched the TravelSmart Belconnen project. Can you tell the Assembly the benefits of this program and how this will contribute to achieving the government’s sustainable transport plan?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for the question. TravelSmart is a key sustainable transport initiative and was identified as such in the government’s sustainable transport plan, which encourages Canberrans to think about their travel needs and reduce their car use wherever possible. This is a vital measure if we are to tackle the issues around global warming and climate change in our community at a local level. Walking, cycling or catching the bus is encouraged. There are many ideas to reduce car travel, such as combining a number of troops to make a single current journey, working from home, teleconferencing and a range of other measures.
The TravelSmart Belconnen project, which I launched last week, is the single largest project of its type in the ACT. It is aimed at helping 11,000 households across Belconnen to tackle global warming by changing their travel habits. The TravelSmart Belconnen project is a large-scale voluntary travel behaviour change project intended to encourage residents to get out of their cars and use healthier, more sustainable modes of transport for some of their journeys. It involves 11,000 households. They will be in the Belconnen town centre, Charnwood, Dunlop, Evatt, Florey, Flynn, Fraser and Melba.
The project is jointly funded by the ACT government and the Australian Greenhouse Office in the commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage. Suburbs in the Belconnen district have been selected to participate in the project because there is a good variety of transport alternatives, including walking and cycling path infrastructure. It is an established district with over 80,000 residents. That makes it suitable for a large-scale project involving 11,000 households. The district has 25,000 jobs, 9,000 tertiary student enrolments and significant local shopping opportunities. This means relatively short travel distances for many households. Therefore this opens up choices for encouraging householders to leave their cars at home and use alternative transport modes.
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