Page 6019 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010
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Mr Barr: Zed’s a Tuggeranong boy, aren’t you?
Mr Seselja: Tuggeranong boy, born and bred.
MR SMYTH: Yes, he is there. He is a Tuggeranong boy. He understands. The time for letter writing is probably past. The federal government and New South Wales governments have shown what they think of the Chief Minister’s letter writing.
Mr Seselja: It’s a lovely place.
Mr Barr: You’re still living there, aren’t you?
Mr Seselja: Did you get rejected? Did they toss you out?
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Will you stop having conversations across the floor!
MR SMYTH: It is like being at home, Madam Deputy Speaker—10 people around the table and there are about six conversations going at the same time. You just have to multi-track.
This is a huge issue. We need to secure the economic future of the ACT, and an airport without a curfew can and will be a very, very important part of that. But we also need to protect the residential amenity of all Canberrans and ensure that we get the lifestyle we are entitled to, not one affected by aircraft noise.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (8.21): I rise to talk about some of the bigger planning issues relating to this development. The first thing to be clear about is that we are talking about locational planning issues with this development. We are not talking in any way about the specific housing that would be built there. This is not about whether they are good houses or five star or 10 star; it is about is it the right place to build the houses and the other dwellings.
There are two basic issues as far as I can see with the location of the Tralee development—firstly, the airport and, secondly, the other developments in Canberra—and I will deal with the airport first. My views on the airport, I guess, are fairly clear. I do believe that fossil fuels are coming to an end, that peak oil has probably already happened or will happen soon. So I think that there are some long-term issues about the viability of basing our economy on an expanding airport, as my colleague Mr Rattenbury has said.
However, despite my concerns about this as a Green, I must acknowledge the reality that the airport is in Canberra, it is a major part of Canberra’s current economic development and it is unlikely to be going anywhere soon other than where it is. And it is unlikely that at any time very soon the planes are going to stop landing there.
Therefore the noise issues of Canberra airport are important to this discussion. And, as has been pointed out by Mr Rattenbury and Mr Stanhope, noise issues from the airport
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