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- 9 May 2007
Canberra Airport Flight Path Residential Development
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Page: 79
The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY [4.17 p.m.]: I simply say to the New South Wales Minister for Planning, Mr Sartor, and the Queanbeyan Council and the developer: Think smart, do not think about lining the pockets of one developer, placing at risk the future operation of Canberra Airport and potentially undermining an appropriate noise-sharing arrangement that benefits all. Why place all of this at risk to please a self-interested developer? That is the crux of the matter. They are not my words. They are the words of Martin Ferguson, the Federal Labor shadow Minister for Transport and Tourism. Martin Ferguson is laying down the law to the Australian Labor Party because he is on this matter, I believe, a man of absolute principle. He has put forward the correct argument—that it is not smart to allow development under a flight path. I congratulate Martin Ferguson on that.
A decision on the development referred to by Martin Ferguson was expected in November 2006, but no decision was forthcoming from Minister Sartor, who said it should take him only a couple of weeks to make a decision. But there was no decision in November, as promised by the Minister and the Iemma Labor Government. Then it was said that there would be a decision before the election, but there was not. The decision was made five weeks after the election, on 27 April, and development under the flight path of Canberra Airport was slipped through.
Why would this have happened? It is important to point out that the developer involved in this development, the Village Building Company, has been incredibly generous to the New South Wales Labor Party. I have no beef with this developer; he has had to do what he has to do in New South Wales. But it is worth pointing out what the developer has had to do in New South Wales to get this development through, despite the findings of an independent land release inquiry that said the development should not happen.
The developer had to do things like providing rugby league and rugby union tickets—indeed, rugby union grand final tickets—to the local member, Steve Whan. The public record has also revealed that the Village Building Company has had to donate more than $80,000 to the New South Wales Labor Party, including to Mr Whan's campaign, over the past four years. I wonder whether a development as controversial as this would have been approved if not for the action that the developer had to take to keep the development on the books of the planning Minister, Frank Sartor. It is all the more pertinent, therefore, to reflect on the comments of Martin Ferguson, who stands quite alone within the Labor Party as a man of principle, putting forward the very proper argument that it is not particularly clever to allow a development to proceed under a flight path.
It is also relevant to mention that Air Services Australia is in the process of considering an adjusted flight path for Canberra Airport. A decision on that issue is due in a couple of weeks. The relevance of that is that there is potential for the residents of Jerrabomberra, a suburb affected by aircraft noise, to have almost total relief if the aircraft noise moves to where the Village Building Company is proposing to develop the land that has now been approved by Frank Sartor for development. However, I suspect that there is still some way to go before anything is resolved in this regard. Holding back development in the Queanbeyan area is the extremely important question of water provision. We are yet to see the signing of a cross-border settlement strategy that will guarantee water for this development. The odds are that Jon Stanhope, the Australian Capital Territory Labor Chief Minister, who is furious about this development under the flight path—and for good reason—will hold back the water that would allow this development to go ahead. So all those who are waiting for community facilities at Queanbeyan will be waiting for some time. There is a lot more to be said on this issue.
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