Page 3474 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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That is where we need to be sensible. We need to be sensible. We are happy with environmental assessments, we support them, but we do not support this idea that you write off whole suburbs or most of a suburb because the Greens have decided that they do not want to see development there, even though it has been reserved for development for a long time.
I think there are some shocking examples of bad planning where we do see house-to-house-to-house, and that has happened under Labor. We do not want to see that. I think that some of the examples of suburbs in Canberra in the south are far better examples. I think they are far more liveable. I think that is the way we should continue broadly to develop our suburbs, but we are not going to go the extra step that the Greens advocate, which is to write them off and therefore deny the kinds of housing options that are needed for the community. This is important. It is important that we get this right.
So let us stick to the facts. If you do not believe it, then withdraw what you said in the Assembly and say you got it wrong. Indeed Mr Smyth drew to my attention the words. It was not a misquote. It was a correct quote. It was a correct quote of what Mr Rattenbury said. So let us be clear on what our position is, and our position is sensible development, open space protected in our suburbs, but let us not write off whole suburbs because that just makes it so much more difficult.
I have actually missed part of the quote; so I will read the entire quote. This is Mr Rattenbury speaking:
Throsby is the perfect case in point of the kind of area for which we should perhaps just put aside all notion of development. Whilst our motion today does not call for this specifically to happen, as the work has not been finished that will determine this final decision, the Greens’ view is that Throsby may well be a complete no-go zone.
I do not know. There is not a whole lot of ambiguity there. So if that is not the Greens’ policy, then just walk away from it and say: “I got it wrong then. We have changed our view.” You have not; so that is the Greens’ policy, that is the Greens’ view. He did not say he was speaking for himself. He said, “Speaking for the Greens, this is the Greens’ view.”
I will finish on that point. It is important we get the balance right. It is important we are held to account for what we say and do not pretend we said something completely different or that we have been verballed when we have not. Let us get it right. We have done it for many decades in Canberra. We have not done it by writing off whole suburbs. We have done it by striking a wonderful balance between open space, good environmental policy and fulfilling the needs and aspirations of young people, in particular, as they seek to build a home and own a home for their families. I will leave it there.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Rattenbury.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (9.29): I stand—
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