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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2203 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

as an elected representative for Gungahlin, I am over a barrel. I do not want to delay the proper development of their town centre; I really do not. I will, of course, be supporting the Bill, as my colleague Mr Wood has indicated, but I think we should all, as elected representatives, not just for Gungahlin but for the Territory, generally express regret at the manner in which this Bill has been brought forward.

MS TUCKER (5.23): The Greens have long recognised the need for a Gungahlin Town Centre as well and are very glad that something is finally happening to turn it into a reality. Since the 1960s Canberra has been planned around the development of separate and relatively self-contained towns, each with its own town centre that would contain employment, community and retail facilities. The idea was that this would provide the opportunity for people to undertake their work and leisure activities and get whatever services they need within their town, rather than have to travel all over Canberra and thus increase traffic levels. Gungahlin has so far been the missing link in this plan. Until now, the people of Gungahlin have had to travel to Civic, Belconnen or Dickson for their everyday needs. This has certainly generated a lot of traffic problems in North Canberra and the eastern side of Belconnen. It is, thus, very important that the town centre provide as soon as possible a range of community and commercial services rather than just be a glorified shopping centre.

The transport links from the town centre to the rest of Canberra also need to be resolved quickly. At present, Gungahlin residents have little alternative but to hop in their cars for the journey south and force their way down Northbourne Avenue or the numerous rat runs that have developed through suburbs like O'Connor and Ainslie. The development of Gungahlin was always meant to be accompanied by the development of transport links with the rest of Canberra. Members may recall the Gungahlin external transport study some eight years ago which investigated this. I remember it very clearly as we participated as residents of O'Connor. We also have the more recent study by the parliamentary committee on the ACT which reviewed this matter and, in recent years, the studies into establishing a light rail system from Civic to Gungahlin. We are still waiting for something positive to be done about developing good public transport links for Gungahlin. For example, we have not seen any mention of a bus interchange being built at the town centre.

On a more positive note, the Greens applaud the decision of the Government to develop the Gungahlin Town Centre in the form of an urban village and not allow the development of another shopping mall, dominated by a few major retailers. The urban village style of development should, in theory, integrate retail, both large and small shops, commercial and community facilities, high-density housing and employment centres in a largely pedestrian-based urban setting with significant amounts of public open space. Credit also needs to be given to the community consultation process for the town centre which, by all accounts, is one of the most successful consultation processes undertaken by the ACT Planning Authority. It was all the more remarkable in that the Planning Authority actually seemed to take notice of the broad community desire to have a more sociable human scale and diverse town centre and not a large sterile mall. It reflected these community views in the Territory Plan variation which set the framework for the town centre.

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