Page 3173 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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Earlier we have talked a bit about the light rail stage 2 corridor and the urban renewal there. I welcome the money for planning along this route. The process will be controversial; thus, it is really important to do a very good job of consultation, planning and listening before it is actually constructed. Clearly there were some issues with that in light rail stage 1; we need to do better in light rail stage 2. We need to do enough planning in advance that local communities have some idea what is likely to happen around them and potential developers know where development opportunities will probably occur.
The budget includes $1.9 million for the Ginninderry environmental management trust. While I am in favour of environmental management and looking after the river corridor there, it is a real shame that the ACT is having to set this up. We should be having a cross-border national park; that is much better than a trust. Unfortunately, the New South Wales government does not agree. I think that in the long run the solution is moving the New South Wales and ACT border. Moving that border was a parliamentary agreement item, but the issue is that the New South Wales government is not willing.
Once this happens, if it happens, there can be an ACT national park in that area. There will be many ongoing benefits for the people who end up living there. We have discussed that at some length. I would urge the ACT government to keep on talking to the New South Wales government about this; the current situation is going to be a very poor solution for the people who will be living in the New South Wales part of what will basically be the ACT.
Looking at the western edge study, $1.1 million of the budget initiative, due diligence to deliver a strong housing pipeline, is for the western edge study, which is going to look at possible development between the existing bits of Canberra and the Murrumbidgee River. The other way of describing this is the area covered by the former LDA’s dodgy land purchases. The western edge study, as the Greens have said a lot of times, should have been done before the LDA went out and bought these pieces of land. It is particularly important because this area has some very strong environmental values. It would seem very unlikely that the Greens could support development of quite a bit of this area. A question that we need ask ourselves is: is developing this area in the western edge study consistent with our climate emergency declaration? And do we really think that Canberra should be growing all the way to the Cotter?
While I am not standing here to advocate development on the Kowen plateau, it would appear that the Kowen plateau is less environmentally significant. Is the major reason we are doing it in this area just that the LDA bought it, so we had better do something with it? Or is there is some other reason? Another possible reason may be that the infrastructure costs would appear to be less in this area than the Kowen plateau, but I do not think we have had a real look at the environmental issues of doing this.
On a more positive note, I welcome the extra funding for development assessments. In estimates we discussed the problem of developers who may be using multiple
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