Page 2548 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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Environment and Planning Directorate—Schedule 1A, Part 1.11—$72,452,000 (net cost of outputs), $5,914,000 (capital injection), $1,852,000 (payments on behalf of territory), totalling $80,218,000.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (10.23): I want to put on record yet again some comments about the proposal to build a large-scale power facility out in Coree, opposite Uriarra Village. Most members in this place would be familiar with the government’s proposal; whether they agree with it or not is still a point of conjecture in this place. As many members are aware, the proposal to install in excess of 26,000 panels within about 150 metres of a residential rural suburb in the ACT has now gone to the development application stage and residents have finally had the first legitimate opportunity to engage in any consultation on this project.
It has been disappointing that there has been a lack of engagement by the government. I note that residents out there were quite relieved to see the back of Mr Corbell, as the now twice-removed planning minister, with the hope that perhaps the new minister in charge of planning, Mr Gentleman, would bring a fresh attitude and a fresh approach to the matters at hand. Sadly, to date, there has been very little action and nothing but a little bit of lip-service paid to residents’ concerns—a similar track record to that of the previous minister.
Residents of Uriarra do not object to the development of a large-scale solar facility in the ACT. Their concern is not about whether the project has merits. Their objection is, and always has been, to the location of the development. The village was built with some tight planning controls—some of the tightest that have ever occurred in the territory—around solar orientation, building efficiency and the like. All the homes out there have a northern orientation. Most of them have solar arrays on their roofs and they rely on tank water to support some of their additional water use.
The thought that residents out there are anti green energy, I think, is laughable. The issue continues to be that 100 families that have spent their hard-earned cash and invested in their future by building a home and a lifestyle out on the fringes of Canberra are now going to be faced with an unsightly, large industrial site directly out the front of their windows, directly opposite the village—on the view that they have been told to build on.
The development application consultation, as I mentioned before, has just closed and there are in excess of 100 objections to this proposal. Considering that there are only 100 homes at Uriarra, it is an overwhelming objection by those that have to live with this on their doorstep, not to mention concerns that are felt by other parts of the community. If Uriarra is the thin edge of the wedge, what other green spaces within the territory will soon be covered with industrial sites?
The DA proposal, as I have mentioned, has in excess of 100 negative comments and feedback submissions to it, most of which do not destroy the premise of the idea but, again, are against the location of the proposal. Residents have also raised significant concerns that exist out there with respect to their safety and the measures that are being taken to attempt to shield residents from the view of 26,000 solar panels on their front doorstep by increasing the amount of trees that are planted along the side of the village.
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