Page 1931 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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The Greens welcome this year’s budget announcements towards a more sustainable Molonglo valley development. Ensuring that Molonglo incorporates excellence in sustainable design is a high priority for the Greens. While funding for roads and land release infrastructure in Molonglo is very clear, the budget commitment to these sustainability initiatives is very unclear. We will be looking to get further information through the estimates hearings.
I was interested in claims that this budget commits to a sustainability strategy for Wright and Coombs, requiring water saving measures for new homes; maximum solar access requirements; a riparian management strategy for the Molonglo River corridor; and provisions for sustainable transport. We are very pleased that the government has allocated over $24 million for stormwater ponds, pipes and pumps in north Weston and Coombs. We would like to see that Molonglo households have access to non-potable water to enable them to reduce their potable water use. We look forward to seeing that Molonglo is going to have improved water saving design standards and that we are not simply repeating the current water saving urban design standards of the rest of the ACT.
Planning wise, we are pleased to see funding go towards master planning for some specific areas: Tuggeranong, $300,000; Erindale, also $300,000; and Pialligo, $100,000. These are things which we have worked very closely with the government to achieve. We believe that through the locality planning processes—master planning or precinct planning—the government is much better equipped to resolve issues for most stakeholders and the plans will better reflect the needs of local communities. There are still a lot of areas throughout Canberra which require this more detailed planning. Civic is one of those. Others are the villages of Hall and Tharwa, along with Pialligo.
We were quite surprised in this context to see $130,000 in this budget for the study into the potential eastern broadacre employment corridor, despite the fact that the eastern broadacre study is yet to be released. I hope that this study includes substantial consultation with the residents of the areas in question, as thus far they feel that they have been excluded by the closed doors in this process.
I was very pleased to see that Lawson south has been touted as another sustainable showcase. It is on a transport corridor and it is close to places such as Canberra uni, Belconnen town centre, Calvary hospital and Bruce CIT, so it is an ideal place for such a development.
In relation to the increased funding that the government will gain from increased change of use charges, the Greens are broadly supportive. The Treasurer has told us that this increase is due to the current law being erroneously applied and developers not paying the amount for properties that legislation requires. However, with the Liberal opposition, we are still unsure whether this will have negative consequences for infill and urban development. There does not appear to be any modelling done by Treasury—or by Macroeconomics, the consultants who are reviewing the change of use charge system. I should say that I mean no modelling on the impacts on urban development; obviously there has been modelling on the potential revenue impacts,
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