Mr ROSS CAMERON (5:08 PM) —I rise to support the motion, to commend it to the House and to do three things: firstly, to pay tribute to my parliamentary colleague, Mr Bruce Baird, the member for Cook, whose efforts have some bearing on the value of the site; secondly, to commend the Defence asset disposals group, who have conducted themselves with great professionalism, and it is to the great credit of the department on this occasion that community support for the redevelopment is very high; and, thirdly and most importantly, to commend the members of the residents committee that was created to work closely with the department to represent the views and concerns of the residents in redevelopment of this most significant site—

Mr Slipper —As the local member, you've worked with them too.

Mr ROSS CAMERON —As the local member, as the parliamentary secretary says, it has been my pleasure to be involved as some sort of support and encouragement to the residents, but I have to confess that they have really discharged this responsibility very effectively, without great assistance from their local member.

I begin, perhaps a little tangentially, with the member for Cook. I think my line of thinking will become evident quickly. The member for Cook is responsible for a number of critical pieces of infrastructure in my electorate. The northern boundary of my electorate is really the M2 motorway, which carries 60,000 residents from the north-western part of Sydney into the Sydney CBD each day. There was considerable opposition to the development of the project, but it was the inspired personal leadership of Bruce Baird, as minister for transport in New South Wales, that saw the delivery of that project. It has dramatically enhanced the quality of life of so many of my constituents, and I want to congratulate him on that. This particular project, the subject of this motion, is a development on land which forms part of the southern boundary of my electorate, beside the Parramatta River. Of course, the very best way to see it is from the river on the river cat, which also had been promised to the residents of Parramatta for some 15 years under former administrations but had never actually been delivered. It took the commitment of Bruce Baird, again as Minister for Transport, to actually deliver that project. It required considerable dredging works and the outlay of quite a significant sum to purchase the river cats.

Part of the moneys being allocated for this project now is for preservation of the river foreshores, and that is because the river cats have brought with them an issue of foreshore erosion. It is a cost which the Commonwealth is going to bear but, given the way that the previous Liberal administration stepped up to the mark and assumed the costs of delivering the infrastructure, I have written to Premier Bob Carr to request his commitment of funds to protect the river foreshore. That has yet to be forthcoming along its length, and so a number of my constituents have their backyards falling into the Parramatta River. I hope Bob Carr will use the very significant proceeds of the GST to deliver some benefits to my residents, which they richly deserve.

Just to position this piece of real estate, if you look to the other side of the river you will see there the magnificent facilities of Homebush Bay, the Sydney Olympic venue. That venue is there likewise, I think it is worth recording, because in 1990—I think it was 1990—Premier Greiner commissioned a report to see if we had a chance of winning the Olympic bid, and Bruce Baird was the individual he selected to write that report. It became known simply as the Baird report. Against the recommendation of many others, Bruce formed the view that we could actually beat Beijing and win that bid. And so it is that those facilities there today quite significantly enhance the land value of the residents who will subsequently purchase the homes under construction on this site.

This 20-hectare piece of riverfront is one of the largest pieces of undeveloped private parcels of land anywhere in Sydney, and certainly anywhere on the river or harbour foreshores. It is a very significant development—700 homes will result—and so it is natural that the surrounding residents, faced with the prospect of such a large redevelopment, might feel a sense of apprehension, having looked with tranquillity over the river on that quiet slope of Ermington at those Olympic facilities. The prospect of this massive redevelopment, this increase in the density of residential occupation, could have been a cause for alarm and concern. But right at the very outset when Defence decided that it was time to rethink the rationale of just having these six huge storage bunkers on this fantastic piece of real estate, the first thing they did was go to the residents and say, `We think it is possible here to deliver the objectives of the department while at the same time enhancing the quality of life not just of the residents who will move onto this site but of the surrounding established community.' So the process they set out of engagement, discussion and consultation could really become a textbook example of how to conduct a successful development of a large parcel of land in a dense metropolis.

The new development, for example, will, in the language of the town planners, be `completely permeable' to the local residents—it is not going to be some sort of locked gate, private development. It will actually open up the foreshore of the entire development to all of the other residents who have been effectively locked out of it by the previous use of the site. There will be a beautiful strip of green—a lovely promenade walkway—right across the length of the site, and the local residents are genuinely excited about that. The height limits on the buildings have been put together with the consideration to the residents higher up the hill who have previously enjoyed their view of the river, and almost all of them will retain that view.

Likewise, I wanted to congratulate Defence—partly on my urging but really on the urging of the committee—on their commitment not just to deliver a first-class development on the site itself but also to contribute $150,000 to the upgrading of facilities on the George Kendall Reserve which immediately adjoins the site.

This is a community with a great sense of spirit and cohesion. There has been no real internal politics of an unhelpful kind—it has just been a commonsense discussion, a raising of concerns, and an addressing of them in a sequential and rational way. The residents of Ermington will derive enormous long-term benefits from that process.

I want to thank Bernard Blackley, who has really been driving the project on behalf of Defence asset sales. I want to acknowledge individually the 10 or so members of this committee, beginning with Ken Newman as chairman, who has worked closely with Les Vance who chairs the George Kendall Riverside Park Committee; John Bartram; Mrs Hazel Carnell; Mrs Joanne Carter; Mrs Anne Currie; Bill Larkin, a chemist at the Betty Cuthbert shops on Victoria Road and a driving force in the Ermington Chamber of Commerce; Greg Kearn; Greg McKay, a good Labor man, who really should be on—

Mr Slipper —If there is such a thing.

Mr ROSS CAMERON —There is such a thing and he is the standout example. He really, in my view, ought to be a candidate for the state seat of Parramatta or potentially even the federal seat, but the factional machinations of the Australian Labor Party tend to prejudice the community based members in favour of those who can marshal the numbers, particularly through trade union membership.

I also acknowledge Geoff Smith and Phillip Blunt, each of whom have contributed their time, their expertise, to the production of this outcome which is really a win-win situation—achieving the objectives of the government and the department while at the same time significantly enhancing the quality of life of the residents of Ermington. I commend the motion to the House.

Question resolved in the affirmative.