Page 2483 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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series of enticements. The Kings Highway is going to be a national highway. I think that is great, and I will be seeking more information on that. A tollway will be established between the ACT and Moruya, with a 40- to 50-minute drive. I think that is great. It will be interesting to see how and when that is to be established and what are the environmental implications of that. It also includes a light railway or monorail, with service trunks along that route. There are some general special questions about that.
Then we move on to further transport links, particularly the emphasis that we have heard today on the very fast train. I certainly support the very fast train concept, but I have very, very grave doubts about the very fast train going along the route that is shown in this document. That implies that the route will go through Gippsland, but it has very major environmental implications. If the very fast train were to follow the route that goes through Wagga, near the Hume Highway, that would be another story entirely. That is a factor that should be presented in a final report.
I accept that this is a proposal for a joint feasibility study, so it is an inaugural statement. I accept that, but it does have some major problems. While I am mentioning rail, I suppose it is a good time to draw attention to the fact that the XPT service from Canberra is to be cut, but that is not mentioned at all in this document, in relation to the general rail links and transport links.
The telecommunications link is another factor to which I draw attention. On page 39 it mentions FOCAS, the Fibre Optic Customer Access Service, an optical fibre loop which will be installed around the Canberra CDB initially by March 1990. I think that is excellent. A decentralised town centre, I have held for a long time, does not have a central business district, and that is recognised here because the term CDB is used, but I am not quite sure what CDB stands for. The usual meaning of CBD is central business district. So, having recognised that there is no such thing in Canberra as a central business district, the Office of Industry and Development has referred to it on page 39 as "the CDB". I am delighted at that.
The other final comments that I would really like to make are to draw attention to the artist's impression. On page 22 of the document we see a rather wonderful aeroplane flying over Canberra. I presume it is a Concorde or futuristic version of some such thing coming to our international airport. I think that is rather advanced thinking. It does have some environmental problems. But what is more significant is that, if you turn to page 36, in relation to transport links, there is a picture of an air vehicle flying between Canberra and Sydney, and it looks to me very much like the space shuttle. I wonder whether some special thing has been left out of the transport links there.
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