Page 730 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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committee on the Canberra leasehold system, which is commonly referred to as the Langmore report.
We were able to get to that stage simply because the developers decided they wanted to cross Ainslie Avenue and change the city plan. If we now stand on City Hill and have a look at what they have done to Ainslie Avenue, I believe that most of us will decide that the decision they finally made to allow that development to go ahead was ill-informed.
Other decisions were taken and appeals were made by the Conservation Council, for example. At that stage when the Conservation Council lost its appeal in the Supreme Court, the Crown sought costs against that community group. That is the type of thing that can go on with the appeals system in the courts. It is completely inadequate. The Langmore committee stated on page 63:
The Committee is mindful of the ease with which public comment can be dismissed even though public participation processes have been followed.
It is not enough for a public participation process; it needs some form of appeal system. And that same committee on page 68, point 5.17, in recommendation 15, recommended that "its decisions would be subject to objection or appeal through the AAT. This procedure would apply to leases under any of the four lease ordinances".
Of course, the person that headed that committee was John Langmore, who is a prominent Labor person in Canberra. It is important that that work is recognised for its value and that his recommendations are taken and adopted.
With reference to sections 38, 53 and part 56, one of the objections that was held by the local residents was that that work and the further development of Civic would have a major environmental impact on them. But no matter what we did, we had great difficulty in getting anybody to provide an environmental impact statement on it. I draw your attention to one of these papers - it was very common for them to drop off the backs of trucks back in 1985 - which had come our way. It stated:
The results of a preliminary environmental assessment have indicated that the forecasted development in Civic in the next few years will result in an unacceptable degradation in environmental quality, particularly in Civic. Air quality and traffic noise pollution are particular problems, especially in Civic, where impacts on pedestrians and adjacent land uses will be significant. Specifically, it is predicted that internationally recognised air quality standards for carbon monoxide, lead and ozone will be exceeded and that the Commission guidelines for traffic noise will be exceeded along 50 per cent of major roads in Civic.
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