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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 6 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1636 ..

Mrs Dunne: Let's not selectively quote, Simon.

MR CORBELL: Listen to them now, Mr Speaker. When they find out their alignment has similar impacts, all of a sudden it is not an issue. What is known is that noise and air quality issues are affected, to a large degree, by the vertical alignment of a road relative to adjacent development. In the absence of any details of the actual vertical alignment of Gungahlin Drive extension near the AIS, the findings of the Eldemar report must be questioned.

What is this about, Mr Speaker? Is this a legitimate exercise by the Australian Sports Commission to inform debate or is it them seeking to pursue a predetermined agenda to stop this government from building the road on the western alignment?

MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt, would you like to ask a supplementary question?

MR PRATT: Yes, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: And once you have asked for it, would you like to listen to the answer?

MR PRATT: My supplementary is to the minister for sport, I think-I am not sure about that. Is it not the case that Eldemar has found that athletes have less REM sleep than other people? Does this not indicate that the noise disturbances caused by the western route, the noisiest of the two routes, going close to their dormitories whereas the eastern route does not, will cause acute disruption to sleep and, therefore, to their performance?

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, isn't it interesting that all of a sudden for Mr Pratt air quality is not an issue. All of a sudden air quality is not an issue because the report that they are relying on shows that the eastern alignment has the same air quality issues as the western alignment. But let us leave that aside and let us address noise.

Mr Speaker, as I have already pointed out to members, the clear advice I have from the Department of Urban Services is that, in the absence of clear data about the proposed vertical and horizontal alignment of Gungahlin Drive extension, it is extremely difficult to accurately predict noise impacts. And so the assertion Mr Pratt makes that noise is an issue is based on data that is erroneous, presumptive and hypothetical. Until the data is available from the government's engineering study on the vertical and the horizontal alignment of Gungahlin Drive extension, this study cannot purport to be an effective analysis of the noise impacts.

Mr Speaker, what is this study about? Is it a genuine attempt to try to inform the debate about Gungahlin Drive extension or is it merely a Trojan Horse to pursue an agenda that seeks to stop this government from building a road on the western alignment? That would appear to be the agenda of the Liberals, that would appear to be the agenda of their Liberal cronies in the federal government, and that would appear to be the agenda of the Australian Sports Commission if this study has anything to do with it.

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