Page 604 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020
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accommodation development that could potentially be permitted in a CZ zone. But I can say confidently that we do not have any intention of allowing that.
It is open for the ACT parks and conservation service to request an adjustment to the reserve boundary from the edge of the designated land to Antill Street and to have that land use rezoned accordingly. However, this variation is not able to be done by way of a technical amendment. Therefore, the adjustment of the reserve boundary and the rezoning of the land use will be included in a broader review of all reserve boundaries, which is currently being undertaken by the ACT parks and conservation service. This will lead to a subsequent Territory Plan variation to adjust the reserve boundaries in due course.
Minister Rattenbury’s motion also mentions the potential impact of Monash Drive, if it were built, and the fact that the National Capital Authority has refused to remove Monash Drive from the National Capital Plan, and Minister Rattenbury again spoke about that in his speech on his introduction to this motion. I would note that early last year Minister Steel wrote to the National Capital Authority asking them again to remove Monash Drive from the National Capital Plan and that the ACT government has committed to never build the road.
Unfortunately, the National Capital Authority, as Minister Rattenbury has pointed out, has refused to remove the road from the National Capital Plan. The planned road, for those not familiar, would run along a four-kilometre stretch along the western foothills of Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie. Minister Steel described this on 13 March 2019 as:
This is an environmentally damaging, unnecessary and expensive road and it should never be built.
We stand by that statement. While we in government will never build Monash Drive, we want to prevent future territory and federal governments from doing so by removing this, as Minister Rattenbury described it, phantom road from the map. We continue to encourage the National Capital Authority to reconsider its position on that matter.
As I said, as a local member for Kurrajong I am very well aware that the residents of Watson, Hackett, Ainslie, Campbell and, indeed, Reid have a very strong connection to both Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie and really value the bush that is right on—I think I said at the time “their doorstep”—our doorstep. I say that as a Reid resident. Those who live near the proposed corridor for Monash Drive have also expressed concern about noise and extra traffic causing disruption to many suburbs along the potential road.
Rather than this unnecessary major road, we believe that a future shared path for walking and cycling along the corridor would make sense and would not substantially impact on the nature reserve but would provide even more Canberrans with the opportunity to enjoy access to the nature reserve. With the completion of a $300 million investment in Majura Parkway, the completion of light rail, which has proved even more popular than predicted, and the full duplication of Gungahlin Drive,
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