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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4312 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Another issue that I think is very relevant to this debate is the land release policies of the current Commonwealth government. I think it is well recognised-indeed, both Liberal and Labor parties in government have had this argument, unsuccessfully, with the Commonwealth government-that land reserved for the purposes of the Commonwealth at the commencement of self-government and no longer required by the Commonwealth should be returned to the territory for an orderly release and planning process. I am sure that Mr Smyth would agree with me that the efforts to date of respective Liberal and Labor governments to convince the Commonwealth government to take a more considered approach have, on the whole, been rather unsuccessful.

Mr Smyth: A fair assessment.

MR CORBELL: I note Mr Smyth's concurrence with that. I think he shares my frustration on this matter, regardless of the party political lines that divide us.

The Commonwealth's land release program has delivered a large element of uncertainty to the employment location debate. It has brought large parcels of land onto the market for potential office development in a disorderly way and in a way that not only undermines the territory's own planned land release program, but also potentially significantly disrupts planning for the provision of services and infrastructure in locations right across the city, whether it is Tuggeranong, Barton, Civic itself, Belconnen or Gungahlin.

It is absolutely essential if we are going to achieve good outcomes for managing the growth and focusing the growth of employment activity which meets our objectives as a community that the Commonwealth government reconsider its land release program. It probably won't, Mr Speaker, and we will need to deal with the reality of that. But the point is an important one.

Issues around employment location are of critical importance to the Labor government, as demonstrated by the fact that this year alone the government has located an additional 140 full and part-time jobs in the Gungahlin Town Centre. Through the proposed relocation of the ACTTAB headquarters and call centre to Gungahlin, we have demonstrated our concrete commitment to additional employment in new and growing town centres. The additional 140 full and part-time jobs in the Gungahlin Town Centre are a concrete demonstration of our commitment to sustaining employment growth in new areas.

But the days of seeking to see large Commonwealth departments locate in new town centres are, indeed, long gone. That is not to say that I do not think we could get better outcomes by the Commonwealth government asserting a more proactive role in the decisions about where Commonwealth agencies choose to locate. Certainly, that is a matter that I will be pursuing further with my federal colleagues. But we do need to have a range of measures in place to encourage better employment location.

The government has demonstrated its concrete commitment in relation to the ACTTAB decision and the government has already publicly declared its determination to establish a strategy to encourage employment location in new and growing town centres, such as Tuggeranong and Gungahlin. It is still a matter of serious concern that 90 per cent of the

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