Page 3335 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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We have seen it before, but this time we have got the Greens having the control of this government here in the ACT and control of the Federal Labor government. We know what their attitude was when it came to Gungahlin Drive. They were against it here and they wanted to intervene at a federal level, using environment legislation. Now they want to intervene to prevent a whole suburb from going ahead. Those are Shane Rattenbury’s words. He does not believe that this suburb should be developed at all and if this suburb should not be developed at all, according to the Greens, then no doubt the future expansion of Horsepark Drive will be stopped on similar grounds.
So for the people of Gungahlin, it is here we go again. The Labor Party and the Greens will frustrate the people of Gungahlin. They have just had to deal with nearly a decade of waiting for Gungahlin Drive to be extended. It has been the best part of a decade and the Greens did their bit, did they not? In league with Save the Ridge, they did their bit.
Ms Gallagher: As did you, Zed. As did you.
MR SESELJA: They did their bit. No, the Labor Party did their bit as well. The Labor Party did their bit. They were not prepared to stand up to them. They were not prepared to stand up to them and we are having it here again. The people of Gungahlin are going to suffer. Mark my words, Madam Deputy Speaker; mark my words. We have the beginnings here of another fight for the people of Gungahlin to get what they deserve, to get the kind of roads they deserve, to be allowed to develop in the way that they should. Let us be clear: this affects not just the people of Gungahlin who will be prevented from developing, prevented from having the kind of road network they deserve, because the Greens are going to stop it again.
The Greens are going to do their best and this time they have got the support of the Labor Party to do so. They have got the support of the Labor Party now. They have invited the commonwealth in. They have invited the commonwealth department in. It is interesting that the Greens are so against the commonwealth coming in on ACT laws except if it is environmental legislation. We see the beginnings here of what is going on. Shane Rattenbury has put it out there. He does not want Throsby to go ahead at all.
That is the other aspect of this kind of attitude that we are seeing. It is the effect on housing affordability. We hear the government saying, “We are releasing all this land.” Now they are going to put an entire suburb at risk because the Greens do not want it. They do not want this suburb to go ahead.
People waiting for the Catholic school to be built in Throsby would be very concerned about the statements from Mr Rattenbury in his speech today where he said he does not want to see Throsby go ahead at all. He believes it should be a development no-go zone, and this is the start of that process.
If it is a development no-go zone, if the Greens get their way on this, then the Catholic high school will not go ahead and there will be even less affordable housing for families in the ACT. Of course, the people of Gungahlin will be the biggest losers as
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