Just when some of you breathed a sigh of relief, I’m back!
In the lead-up to the election, the Boss wants to have a regular column from a member of the ACT Government and a member from their opposition, and has picked two fine representatives to do that. I have been asked to do a column in my dual capacity as an experienced ex-MLA and as a minor party/independent candidate.
I’m delighted to do so on a voluntary basis, as agreed with the Weekly.
Readers should note that, whilst I will attempt to give a reasonable coverage of the election from my own observations and experience, I will certainly comment on any policies or ideas that I think will benefit the territory, including Belco Party ideas. Readers should feel free to criticise or support whatever I say, as you have done to date in relation to the old “Fit the Bill” column.
One local issue that has been simmering away for the last two years or so is now coming to a head.
By the time you read this, the NSW planning authorities will have closed submissions from any opponents or supporters of a huge solar farm/factory the size of 750 football fields (about the size of a suburb) that will occupy land immediately north of the NSW/ACT border – in many instances, less than one kilometre north of ACT homes in Dunlop and West Macgregor. Many residents in West Belconnen are not very happy with this.
It appears there has been little, if any, real community consultation. There was a recent meeting at 10am on a Thursday during the school holidays at Murrumbateman, and that’s about it. This proposed plan has been known to the ACT Government for about two years, but they seem to have been singularly unconcerned about it; the Chief Minister only raised it with his NSW counterpart in the last few weeks. The Greens (Shane Rattenbury and local Ginninderra member Jo Clay) seem to have been aware of it as well, but don’t seem concerned, no doubt because it’s solar. I wonder what their reaction would be if it was a small modular nuclear reactor site!
I am advised that there are many issues with this, including some that may concern ATSIC, and other relevant bodies that the concerned citizens of Wallaroo will take this up with. There seems, at the very least, to have been a complete lack of consultation, and the NSW local government precedents for these types of developments to be at least five to six kilometres away from any suburbs in towns and cities certainly have been totally disregarded, due no doubt to the proximity of the ACT border.
On a political note, the Belco Party will certainly make a submission to the relevant NSW authority, and ask that the project be put on hold until proper consultation has been undertaken, and that, at the very least, the solar factory be moved five to six kilometres north to comply with current NSW practice.
Editor’s note: Bill Stefaniak will stand as a Belco Party candidate for Ginninderra in the ACT election in October.
