Page 2485 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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MR BARR: This is a major area of planning policy and we are debating the planning and land authority appropriations.
MR SPEAKER: Order! I think the contextual situation is open for discussion and the comparative one as well.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker, it certainly is. The people of Canberra will be demanding answers.
MR SPEAKER: But not for too long.
MR BARR: That is noted, Mr Speaker. The people of Canberra will be demanding answers on this issue. They will want to know where the Liberal Party stands. Labor has a clear position: we would like to see intensification of development along major public transport corridors and in the areas close to major services—around shopping centres, around group centres and around major transport corridors. We also want to see additional land made available in the Molonglo Valley. Public consultation on that, in conjunction with the NCA, will commence tomorrow.
Mr Mulcahy: Where are the 5,000 blocks?
MR BARR: I am very pleased that Mr Mulcahy reminded me of that point. Concept plans have been approved and endorsed as guidelines under the territory plan for the suburbs of Franklin, Ford, Bonner, Casey, McGregor west, Uriarra Village, Stromlo settlement and Crace. A concept plan for Ngunnawal 2C is currently being finalised by the Land Development Agency. New concept planning will commence for Moncrief, Taylor, Kenny, Throsby, Harrison, Ford, Lawson and Kinleyside in 2007-08. Of course, we go into consultation on the new suburbs in north Weston as part of the overall Molonglo Valley development opportunity.
There will be at least two new suburbs immediately north of Cotter Road beginning in an arc effectively from where the RSPCA is around to Stromlo forest park. Those suburbs will be the first areas of new development in the Molonglo Valley. The expectation is that they will be available for sale in the second half of 2008—we expect probably closer to Christmas—pending, of course, the passage of community consultation on the draft variation and its consideration by the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, the NCA process, and the final acceptance of the variation by the Assembly.
Our proposal is that those suburbs will come on line in late 2008. Of course, we will continue the land releases in Gungahlin. There is the Woden east development and we have the Eastlake study with the CSIRO, so we are looking at suburban infill as well as providing refill releases. I think the important thing about Molonglo Valley is its proximity to the city, Belconnen and Woden. Some of the issues that have been raised recently in debate, in particular by the federal treasurer, have been about releasing more land on the fringes of cities but that does not necessarily address the housing affordability problem.
I thank Mr Mulcahy for quoting the statements that I made in estimates because they are right. There has been too much emphasis on demand-side policies, the first
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