Page 1785 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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However, we do not have a plan for long-term prosperity. We have had and will continue to have next year huge infrastructure investment. Targeted infrastructure investment is essential if we are to build a sustainable city for the 21st century economy. Unfortunately it appears very little long-term planning or cost-benefit analyses have been done on how that investment will position us for the economic challenges that face us ahead.
The Access Economics report cited in the motion states very clearly just how vulnerable we are to the economic slowdown as a result of a decline in commercial and residential construction. The report also says that a piece of good news of late is that the federal government has not been able to restrain itself thus far, still doling out dollars when bad publicity hits the front page. That is poor policy making but it is keeping the ACT’s economy ticking over.
The report also states that the territory’s medium-term prospects have hung in the balance ever since it became clear that federal government expenditure needed to be reined back over the next few years. This is a serious economic issue for the ACT. We do not want to be subject to the whims of the commonwealth and we should be working towards establishing our own sustainable industries for which we know there will be long-term demand and a good return on investment. Land release is set to be a significant part of government revenue stream and we will be dependent on it for the delivery of services throughout the forward estimates.
Canberra is growing and we need to address that growth. People need a place to live and our residents have a right to government services. People also have a right to a healthy environment and we have a collective obligation to provide intergenerational equity and ensure we do not reduce future generations’ ability to meet their needs.
Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that resources, none more so than land, are finite. We will have an Assembly inquiry into ecological carrying capacity which I suspect will identify that we are already using far more than our fair share of resources. What are we going to do when that land runs out? We know that our ecological impact is unsustainable. The figures are alarming. Our state of the environment reports show a continually declining environment.
Of course, as we move to release more and more land the challenge for the ACT as the bush capital is obvious. Not only does the conversion of land to urban development actually put at risk many of our natural values and unique biodiversity as we chew our way through box gum woodlands and native grasslands, this development also increases the challenge in terms of managing the reserve areas that are left adjacent to the urban development.
On the first point, we know, for example with the Molonglo Valley development, that the government’s plans are to build on some highly sensitive ecological areas, including critically endangered yellow box woodlands. While it seems that current thinking is to merely offset those areas with areas of land or other ecological programs, we know that offsets are, firstly, very difficult to assess and, secondly, are
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