Page 1921 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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I want to respond to some of the points made by the minister. In the case of the Phillip pool, he said, “We require selling off land in order to finance the upgrade of the pool.” Was this the case in Belconnen? I do not think so. I want to know why this particular argument is pulled out at the government’s discretion when in other places we consider it a community right to have access to decent facilities.
Another thing that concerned me about the whole process was that there seemed to be some certainty given to developers on that site before the time had elapsed by which the variation would have come through. I was getting emails saying, “Why are you holding up this process? We are all ready to go.” There should not be that certainty given to developers until these things have been right through the process. That is concerning.
Andrew Barr does not consider that this variation will affect recreational amenity, but that is just his opinion. There is no proof for that. Those approximately 100 people per day, apparently, playing lawn bowls—I am not sure where they are going to go. To say that people can go and play basketball in Tuggeranong these days does not take into account the public transport issue, for instance, or the fact that people have to get in their cars to do all these things as we close down amenities closer to hand.
This is something that the government is going to have to be rethinking. And it is about time it started rethinking it now. These kinds of plans that are being set in motion will last for decades into the future. And decades into the future we are going to be trying to undo some of these things. We could have had the vision and forethought to have thought about them now.
It is interesting that the government understands Woden Valley Community Council’s desire for community facilities but refuses to give them any sense that they are actually going to do something about it. Mr Barr said, “There are other sites,” but he did not commit the government to making those available. I endorse most of the things that were said by the opposition in relation to that; I will not repeat them.
In closing, I would like to read out the very constructive suggestions which Woden Valley Community Council put forward to the minister and which Mrs Burke referred to. I would be very concerned if none of these things can be done because the government voted against this disallowance motion. The first—it is too late now—is:
(a) Allow the Disallowance Motion to succeed. Resubmit a DV which is minus WTC’s Northern Entertainment, Accommodation and Leisure Precinct. Undertake a Section Master Plan for this EA&L Precinct in consultation with the Woden Community BEFORE land use changes are effected.
The list continues:
(b) Make section 22 Blocks 1 and 2, Section 24, Section 104 and Section 23 Blocks 1-4 and 8 subject to a Section Master Plan with a view to retaining as a minimum the current level of recreation services in the Town Centre (either to the area, to the north of Launceston Street or elsewhere) prior to agreeing to any changes to leases on these blocks.
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