Page 3165 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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We are pleased that the government has allocated $24 million to stormwater ponds, pipes and pumps in north Weston and Coombs. This, hopefully, will work on one of the items of our agreement, as far as Molonglo goes, to see that households have access to non-potable water to ensure that households can reduce their potable water intake. We look forward to hearing that Molonglo will have improved water saving urban design standards above the design standards which are in place for the rest of Canberra.
In the context of sustainable urban design, the East Lake proposals, which are currently undergoing community consultation, seem to be quite innovative and heartening. What is really frustrating is that the government clearly have some idea that they can do things better. ACTPLA are clearly exploring the ingredients of sustainable development, but they are not applying this learning to the major new development, which is Molonglo. They are just doing this in East Lake. To a lesser extent, they have said that they will do this in Lawson south, which has been touted in the budget as another sustainable showcase. Certainly, we think it is a really good place to be a sustainable showcase because it is so close to the University of Canberra, Belconnen town centre, Calvary hospital and Bruce CIT. It would be great, but why can we not have this in Molonglo as well? Why can we not have this in Gungahlin as well? We cannot understand why any development in the ACT would not be as sustainable as possible.
I will now move on to urban infill and master planning. It is an area which has exercised us a lot and is going to exercise us a lot more in the future, I am sure. We are pleased to see funding towards master planning for some specific areas—Tuggeranong, Erindale and Pialligo—and we have worked closely with the government to ensure that. One of the things in terms of master planning which does surprise people is that Civic is one of the areas that we feel needs master planning. The government recently put out a draft greater Civic plan, but that document is not actually a master plan. It is just a TAMS forward capital expenditure program. The other villages of Hall and Tharwa are strong contenders for master planning, along with Pialligo.
We were surprised to see $130,000 in this budget for study into the potential eastern broadacre employment corridor, despite the fact that the eastern broadacre study is about to be released in a few months time. I hope that this further funded study includes substantial consultation with the residents of the area in question because so far they feel they have been excluded by the closed doors of this process.
We believe that through locality planning processes, master planning, precinct planning or neighbourhood planning—whatever word you want use—if this is done, the government would be much better equipped to resolve issues for stakeholders and the plans would better reflect the needs of the local communities. We will continue to work towards better community engagement around individual developments and we believe that working with local communities is the best way forward.
I am particularly conscious of this because I am often contacted by constituents telling me that where what was once a single house or two blocks near to them is now going to become six to 12 units. These units typically produce overshadowing problems and
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