Page 3089 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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Another key issue of interest to me is building notification, and, in particular, in local neighbourhoods when demolition is about to take place. I believe the government are going to address these in their foreshadowed legislative changes to planning notifications and consultations which will be happening in the second half of this year.
In terms of planning, one of the things that we need to discuss is the eastern employment corridor, otherwise known as the eastern broadacre study. We need to make sure the government is not putting the cart before the horse. It is important that we prioritise the high conservation value areas first, ensure that all environmental studies have been done, and ensure that areas that need protection are protected, especially the areas that are key to ecological connectivity. The Greens also believe we should put aside some areas within Majura Valley and along the Molonglo River corridor for agricultural purposes.
Another priority for the Greens is for the government to develop its green economy strategy and determine uses for the corridor which are consistent with this. It is hard to know what the key land use purposes might be when you do not really have a strategy for how we are going to develop our economy into the long term. But there are two things that seem to be coming clearly from the government as their strategy, firstly, their support for Canberra airport becoming a 24 hour freight hub, despite significant community concern and calls for a curfew, which ties into their second priority—their support for the Majura parkway, which we debated at some considerable length last week in the Assembly.
The Greens support ACTPLA looking further into an urban development sequence for affordable housing, but we would like to see as a part of this focus on delivering a broader range of housing types—affordable housing, community housing and public housing. I reiterate the Greens’ commitment to 10 per cent public housing in all our new developments. Without that, we will not be able to keep our numbers up.
I would also like to reiterate, of course, the Greens’ concerns about proposed developments in Kenny and Throsby. The proposal for Throsby, in particular, is ecologically unsound, as it juts out into Mulligans Flat and Goorooyaroo nature reserves, exacerbating the edge effects on the nature reserves through the increase of human beings and human settlement next to them. The planning committee inquiry of 2005 recommended that the suburban boundary for Throsby be pulled right back, and we support that. But I understand that the government is still considering how far it will pull back on this. This has not, as yet, been determined. We also understand that there is a high level of superb parrot habitat in Throsby, and this should be an ecological priority for the government.
Just across the road at Kenny there are a few environmental issues as well. (Second speaking period taken.) There are some very large trees in Kenny which must be exceptional bird habitat, and I understand that environmental studies are about to be conducted. I also understand this is one of the highest densities of striped legless lizards known in natural temperate grassland, and this needs to be considered.
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