Page 1839 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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I have frequent meetings and engagements with the Catholic education system, not only during this annual celebration but throughout the year. I always look forward to meeting people there, both as a member of the Assembly and as the ACT Greens spokesperson on education and training. The meetings have included meetings with the Catholic Education Office on a number of occasions. We have discussed the issue of the new college.
As this motion of Mr Doszpot’s notes, this college, recently named John Paul college, was originally proposed to be built in Throsby, in the rapidly expanding suburbs of Gungahlin. The ACT Greens were keen to talk with the Catholic Education Office throughout this process, as we were aware of the possible environmental importance of the area and the impacts of development on the proposed site. In fact, it was a motion by my colleague Shane Rattenbury on Throsby and the environmental importance of large areas of Throsby that brought to light the fact that the ACT government had been tardy in pushing forward and getting those commonwealth environmental assessments done.
As we have since found out, the site was deemed unsuitable for development under that commonwealth EPBC legislation. A new site has subsequently been identified in the suburb of Nicholls. Unfortunately, while the decision to build or not build on that specific site was not under the control of the ACT government, as I have said, there were delays that did not help the situation.
The Greens shared the concerns of the Catholic Education Office and the community who have been working towards this school being built in Throsby since at least 2010. With lots of community support and parental expectations raised about future enrolments, the last thing the process needed was unnecessary delays that were not based on substantive environmental, planning and development concerns but were bureaucratic in nature.
Tardiness in referring the site to the commonwealth for environmental assessment certainly threw this whole planning process into disarray. This was a disappointment for all concerned. Many in the Catholic community were, understandably, very upset. They urged the government to acknowledge the hard work that had gone into the original development plan, and to work more closely with all stakeholders in the future to ensure these kinds of avoidable delays are not repeated.
I will continue to keep a close eye on this. A site in Nicholls has now been identified. There are two blocks. One block has been cleared. It has been investigated and there is clean fill on that block, so that is going to be fine to build on. It is the second block that is the concern. It is being tested at the moment. We are all hoping that again it is clean fill—old builders’ rubble that is clean, that is not contaminated—that we will find there so that the school can go ahead and building work can commence. It is a very tight time frame. Having spoken to people there at the breakfast this morning, there is concern that it is a tight time frame. But we are all being optimistic that we will find clean fill in that other block and work will commence as soon as possible.
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