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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 846 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

The Commonwealth has the power to override the ACT in regard to the use of Commonwealth land.

The AIS and other members of the Bruce Precinct Association are concerned at the proximity of a four-lane highway to training, residential, commercial, technology and educational facilities. Further development of the Bruce precinct would be hindered by the division of the area by a four-lane highway.

Mr Speaker, it needs to be recognised that the area has changed remarkably since 1991, when the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the ACT, chaired by the former member for Fraser, Mr John Langmore MP, recognised this as a suitable major road corridor.

Notwithstanding the effects on commercial and residential activity associated with Huntley Estate and the development of Technology Park, the effects on the AIS and Bruce Stadium will be serious. The western option would pass close to the AIS dormitories and would bisect the car parks, which are used not only by visitors but also by AIS staff and residents. The outstanding and hugely popular successes of Australian athletes at the Sydney Olympics were in no small way due to the programs of the AIS. Any disruption to the ability of the AIS to continue to effectively and efficiently conduct its programs would be a retrograde and potentially highly contentious step.

Entrance to the AIS and its various tourism, training and competition venues will be severely disrupted. Expensive vehicle and pedestrian access will also have to be provided either under or over the parkway. On balance, it would be much cheaper and less disruptive and more effective to put the Gungahlin Drive extension through the eastern corridor, where there is basic freedom for development, than through the western corridor, where a multitude of complications need to be addressed. There would be major complications in using the western corridor.

It is important that members realise that, even if all of these recommendations are carried through, Gungahlin residents will still be disadvantaged compared to other Canberra citizens. Residents of Belconnen and Tuggeranong have four major outlets, while these recommendations, comprehensive as they are, will provide Gungahlin with only two.

There is a time for thinking. There is a time for discussion. There is a time for study and investigation. There is a time for consultation. There is a time for commencing. Finally, there is a time for action. And that time has come, Mr Speaker. There should be no more studies. It is time to get on with the job of providing essential transport infrastructure for the families of Gungahlin. My committee considers it imperative that the current parliament take a decision on this issue. This is our duty.

On behalf of the committee members, I extend our appreciation to all who assisted with this inquiry. (Further extension of time granted.) I would like especially to thank all those who provided submissions or appeared before my committee. I assure them that their views were taken with the same seriousness with which they were delivered.

I also thank various departmental officers who appeared. I also thank their respective ministers for allowing them to attend. Special thanks are due, as usual, to the committee secretary, Mr Rod Power, whose skills were particularly evident in the long and

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