Page 4617 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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I note that the government yesterday tabled its response to the planning and urban renewal committee’s recommendations that the peninsula be removed from the land release program and considered for environmental and recreational purposes. It is not just the planning committee that is calling for the peninsula to be protected. Earlier today I tabled two petitions, totalling over 550 signatures, to protect the peninsula. The Conservation Council has also called for the planning committee’s recommendations to be accepted. But the government has arrogantly said no. They do not agree. They know best; too bad; everyone should just suck it up.
On behalf of the people of Murrumbidgee, my electorate, and the residents of Coombs, who do not want this area developed, who do not want to be told to just suck it up, I am calling on the government to protect Coombs peninsula and to remove it from the land release program. We have had many debates in this place about the situation for people who live in Coombs. They are suffering from high crime rates. They are suffering from the establishment of a new suburb, which takes time. It takes time for trees to grow; it takes time for gardens to grow. It is quite a heat sink at the moment. There is a lot of concrete; there is a lot of bitumen; there are a lot of rocks.
This small part of nature at the end of the peninsula is exactly the kind of thing that we need to promote to people to use for their mental health, for their wellbeing, for their ability to learn about the natural environment. I am very much in favour of new suburbs but I am also in favour of a balance where there is access to greenery, where we do not create a 100 per cent heat sink full of concrete and where we find a balance so that people’s lives are able to be balanced.
I started out living in Canberra at Gungahlin. I have lived in Ngunnawal and Amaroo. Particularly when I was in Amaroo, it was a fairly new suburb. The trees were small. There was much concrete and many rocks. For the sake of a balanced life, it would be the right thing for the government to hold off and not make this an area for more housing, but to keep it as a nature park. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.43): I move:
In paragraph (3), after “multi-dwelling development”, add “, and rezone it for environment and recreation purposes by 30 June 2020”.
The Greens are going to be supporting Mrs Jones’s motion to protect the Coombs peninsula. The Greens believe that the bulk of the Coombs peninsula should not be developed. Instead, we believe that it should be rezoned and protected for environment and recreation purposes. I am going to find myself repeating some of what Mrs Jones said because we are talking about the same thing. Nonetheless, I will go through some of the reasons why we should be doing this.
First of all, it is a small site, surrounded by the Molonglo River reserve. What happens on that site will directly impact on the reserve. Sadly, many builders do not do the right thing with their construction waste. Anyone who visits a new suburb will see builders’ rubbish blowing all over the place. For the Coombs peninsula, that rubbish will blow straight down the hill into the reserve and the river. I can see that there will be many hours wasted picking it up. This does not have to happen.
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