Page 1060 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2016
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and the Canberra of tomorrow. Canberra’s future is a population of 500,000 by 2033. To accommodate that growth we need to think about a range of housing types, including higher density options where appropriate. I believe that this variation does strike a balance between protecting the residential amenity and character of the suburb of Red Hill and providing new housing choices close to shops, employment and community spaces.
I call on the Assembly to reject this disallowance motion and to pass this important variation in the Assembly today.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (10.36), in reply: The Canberra Liberals are extremely disappointed that those opposite, including Mr Rattenbury, are not backing the community that they allegedly represent. We are disappointed that, once again, the government and Mr Rattenbury have demonstrated the strength of their coalition and, in lock step, are in effect blocking out community concerns and blocking out the community’s view on what is a very poor variation indeed. Variation 334 is bad planning, it is bad consultation and it is bad government.
Variation 334 is yet another example of this government playing games with the planning process and playing games with the community. Instead of being honest with the community, the government goes through a sham consultation, notionally pretends to wind it back slightly, and then expects to be thanked at the end. The opposition does not accept this and, as is clearly demonstrated, nor does the community.
Unfortunately, the government expect that the community will be kept happy by notionally winding back a couple of small elements of variation 334. However, I think we all understand that there is a fair chance that what we have actually got now is what the government intended all along. They do this gamesmanship all over town. We saw it at the Yarralumla brickworks, where they inflated the number of dwellings, then wound it back slightly and expected to be thanked. That is exactly what is on display here yet again.
Variation 334 is, and should be, of serious concern not just to the Red Hill community but to all communities in Canberra. They are saying that four, five or six-storey buildings can be put anywhere in Canberra. They will ram it through this place. They will use their tight coalition of nine to get anything, anywhere, whenever they want. They will simply steamroll the community in order to get the cash grab that they need.
This has nothing to do with planning; this is all about light rail and getting the sale revenue from this block. We all know that. Everybody in Canberra knows that. It has nothing to do with the planning process; it is all about a cash grab by a greedy government that has an obsession with a bad transport outcome.
The proposed height of buildings under this variation is extremely unclear. Although the variation includes a limit on the number of storeys, it does not include an absolute height limit in metres. That is, of course, the real concern. There are serious issues regarding the density, and this is not at all clear in the variation. How many dwellings will be included on this site? What will be the make-up of these dwellings? Whereabouts on the site will these dwellings actually be located?
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