Page 2047 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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and they cannot easily accommodate an increase in capacity without major upgrade. Again, on these issues, the plan is lacking detail. Again, the community is wanting reassurances their current services will not be compromised.
The question of restoration of the brickworks has both heritage and commercial considerations. While the current plan allows for a make-safe arrangement, it is not really good enough to just patch them up and wait for something to come along. In fact, the LDA’s latest information update says:
The brickworks is on the National Trust’s “most at risk” sites ... due to its ongoing neglect. To do nothing is no longer an option.
These are the LDA’s words, Mr Barr. But that is exactly what they are proposing. The current plans do not include any funding model that would allow restoration or conservation of the brickworks. The recent focus on asbestos has not assisted any future consideration of the area, but asbestos remediation is a major concern not only to residents but for Canberra itself. The safe removal of containment is of utmost importance.
In summary then, the motion outlines a range of concerns, issues that have come from numerous sources and certainly not contained to Yarralumla. Minister Barr says this is a Canberra issue and the commentary, concerns and questions indicate clearly it is. While cheap, pejorative accusations have been directed at Yarralumla residents, those that make them show their own ignorance of the deep-felt concerns a wide cross-section of Canberra feel about poor planning and arrogant non-listening governments. This affects all of Canberra and if the government gets it wrong, all of Canberra will suffer. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Housing and Minister for Tourism and Events) (10.23): I thank Mr Doszpot for bringing this important matter before the Assembly today. It is an important discussion, obviously, in terms of the future development of Canberra. I have circulated an amendment to Mr Doszpot’s motion that I move now:
Omit all words after “(1) notes”, substitute:
“(a) that the Canberra Brickworks and Environs Planning and Development Strategy was released by the ACT Government’s Land Development Agency (LDA) in May 2014, and replaces an earlier draft published in 2010;
(b) the ACT Government has provided in-principle support for development of the Brickworks area, including restoration of the historic Canberra Brickworks, subject to relevant statutory approval processes;
(c) the 2014 Strategy proposes 1,600 dwellings, including two to eight storey developments, a 4 hectare quarry parkland space, a 2.72 hectare Denman Street park and a railway heritage park;
(d) the Strategy provides for an initial ‘make safe’ conservation of the Brickworks, in accordance with the Conservation Management Plan endorsed by the ACT Heritage Council in 2010;
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