Page 1358 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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just working in the ACT. There are benefits for us in terms of our revenue base. There are benefits for us as a community if people choose to settle here rather than in the region. Many will choose to settle in the region, and we should work with them and we should maintain good relations with them. But, unfortunately, for many young families here in the ACT that is becoming less and less of an option and less and less of a reality. The region is becoming their first choice, not because that is the way they want it to be but simply because that is the only way that they can find affordable accommodation.
I commend the MPI and I commend Mr Coe for bringing it forward. It is important that we work very effectively with our regional councils, with Tim Overall, the Mayor of Queanbeyan, and with the New South Wales government led by Barry O’Farrell, represented here and in the region by many fine MPs and a number of fine ministers, so that we can get very good outcomes—so that we can get better outcomes for the people of the ACT into the future.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (3.49): The ACT, as we know, is an island in New South Wales and, while cross-border relations are of course essential for all Australian jurisdictions, they are particularly important for us. The range of responsibilities that state and territory governments are charged with in the Australian federal system means that we rely on our neighbours to consider the impacts their decisions have on us in the territory. The scope of cross-border impacts cannot be overstated.
I think the best way to address the issue put for discussion today is to go through a number of the key issues and offer the Greens’ views on those. The Greens could not agree more that it is vital for our region that planning in the ACT is coordinated with planning in the wider New South Wales region. The ACT is completely co-dependent on sharing the same resources, such as water in our catchments, rivers and dams, our water pollution, our air, our roads, our agricultural land and of course our broader natural environment.
It is precisely for this reason that the Greens pushed for an Assembly inquiry into the ecological carrying capacity of the ACT and region to ensure that we take into account the broader impacts and resource capabilities for us and our close New South Wales neighbours. It is certainly frustrating that a suburban development such as Tralee can be approved solely through the New South Wales planning processes; yet it will have a significant impact on the ACT as well. The same issue, of course, applies to our borders in the other directions and it could be very useful to coordinate better with local towns surrounding the ACT such as Yass, Cooma and Sutton. While planning for our infrastructure continues to stop at political borders and ignore the real parameter, the geography and usage patterns, we will continue to deliver substandard infrastructure.
On the issue of transport, our transport planning, for example, is one of the key areas that could be significantly improved. The Queanbeyan and ACT populations are growing fast and it is a shame that there is not far better coordination of our transport systems and bus companies in particular. Clearly a more efficient and cohesive system is required for the around 60 per cent of Queanbeyan residents who work in the ACT
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