Page 2130 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 May 2013
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challenges regions face in accommodating mining interests, the environment, housing, tourism, land tenure and employment requirements.
A centres tour was also conducted, which included a visit to the Gungahlin town centre and a discussion on ideas around its original design and an assessment of how it is working in practice. The tour also looked, of course, at the popular suburb of Forde and its place within the broader town area.
Developers of the site of the new Loop redevelopment at Belconnen markets outlined their vision for a sustainable residential, commercial and retail precinct and some of the obstacles and opportunities associated with that project. The bus tour concluded with a drive along the route of the proposed light rail project. So there was a great focus on Canberra from PAA in its centenary year.
While on Canberra, we had one of our famous Canberrans, Professor Will Steffen from the university. He spoke on some of the records relating to climate change and its effect on planning. He said that records go back about a century looking at trending in warming. The last decade shows a clear temperature rise. Importantly, ocean heat is trending strongly upwards. He said that we are starting to understand more about the implications on sea level rise and how that works. It works a bit like a kettle where once the kettle is heated, the steam rises and then precipitation forms from that.
He spoke about the risks in Australia. We had 90 days last summer where we broke 123 records of weather events. Higher temperatures include seven days in a row with mean temperatures over 39 degrees. He said that human health was also affected and deaths in Melbourne rose directly in line with temperature increases in 2009. He said the Brisbane flooding was another climate indicator, with 2.5 million people affected and the cost estimated at $5 million.
Mr Seselja: I thought we were told it was not going to rain again because of global warming. We were told it was not going to rain again.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Seselja!
MR GENTLEMAN: Rainfall is an indirect effect. Ninety per cent of Australia’s rainfall is from the ocean and, as I said, he gave us the analogy of the kettle. He looked to the future and he said this means that, with flooding, by 2100 it will mean that the one in 100 year events that we see happening now will happen every year. So we will see a one in 100 event that we see at the moment happening every single year after 2100. He also said that the critical decades are from now until 2100, and if we do nothing we cannot adapt to the possible rise of seven degrees in that period.
Whilst we are on Canberra, we also had a presentation by Dr Karl Fischer, who described some of Canberra’s planning from the early days and the work of the NCDC. He also talked quite a bit about public transport. He looked at it from about 1963, when we saw a move from the NCDC to support the motor car. The Y plan was developed, bringing freeways running between the town centres, and there was no progress at the time on busways. The Department of the Capital Territory was formed. He said there was opposition to the Molonglo freeway in 1973, and the NCDC renamed freeways as parkways.
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