Page 4465 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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Church Site Development - Barton
MR MOORE: Madam Speaker, my question is to Mr Wood as Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. The Minister has had notice of this question. I refer to proposed development on section 6, Barton, that is, the area which includes St Mark's theological college. Are you aware of any application for development, either for office blocks or intense residential, on the site, which has been provided by this community for church use?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, to be precise, I am not aware whether there has been an actual application for development. I am aware that consideration is being given to performing some work on that site. I would be delighted if the Anglican Church, which is the lessee, were to proceed, in accordance with the terms of the lease, to provide a major church facility on that site. That is one of a number of leases given to churches in Canberra many years ago for church purposes. The Churches Centre in Civic was one such site; the Catholic Church occupies a site across Parkes Way on Commonwealth Avenue; and the Anglican Church has been given a lease on the other side of Kings Avenue, across the lake. They were given many years ago - I am not sure of the precise date - and it would be good to see something happen.
However, I make one reservation on that. Some time ago it was mooted that, in order to get that site up, there should be some office development on the site. I indicated verbally, not precisely to anybody, that I would not be at all in favour of that. I heard the new Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn express a laudable vision for that site, which was to establish a national religious centre. I also understood that, as part of that vision, there was a proposal for residential development as one means of getting it off the ground. I was concerned about that because I was one of, I think, many Canberrans who disapproved of the way the Churches Centre was developed.
I spoke to the bishop and the registrar of the diocese and indicated that it would be extremely unlikely that approval would be given for a residential component on that site. That is the last I have heard of it. I do not know whether an application in that form will still be forthcoming. I have expressed my view, and I am happy to have the opportunity to express that view within the Assembly. It is probably sensible at this point to make a comment that I made in Cabinet because I wished to draw my colleagues' attention to it.
Mr Kaine: This is not Cabinet-in-confidence, is it, Minister?
MR WOOD: No, I am happy to make it public. That is, as a member of the synod of the Anglican diocese I would, if necessary, step aside from any discussion of that issue, even though I have not indicated a favourable view of that residential development at this stage. Should it emerge, appropriate measures would be taken, and I took the step of informing Cabinet of that.
MR MOORE: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Minister, you will recall that, with the Churches Centre, this community, because of the betterment arrangements, was deprived of several million dollars of community money. What betterment arrangements would apply if any development were to go ahead?
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