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Concern over
ACTEA plans
Sir, — The ACT Electricity
Authority plans to crcct 132kv
power lines to serve south-east
Tuggeranong. As required by the
Commonwealth Environment
Protection (Impact of Proposals)
Act the ACTEA has prepared a
draft cnvironmental-impact
statement.
Surprisingly, that document
makes interesting reading, princi
pally because of its inadequacy.
But it is not merely details of the
report that raise concern. The
prudence of a proposing in
strumentality commissioning an
environmental-impact assessment
of its own proposal is severely
questionable.
The lessons learnt from the ac
tion of Tasmania's autonomous
HEC and their proposals for the
Franklin River must not be forgot
ten.
Thankfully we can look forward
to the introduction of self-govern
ment for the ACT. We Canberrans
must ensure that our own Govern
ment assumes responsibility for
the actions of service instrumen
talities such as the ACTEA and the
NCDC.
There have been too many in
stances in the past where Federal
Ministers or government bodies
(such as the ACTEA and NCDC)
have acted against the opinion of
Canberra residents.
Public response to a draft en
vironmental-impact statement
such as the one referred to above
is token participation, paternalistic
and insincere if it is not supported
by real power.
The public judgment of the im
pact of proposals by government
instrumentalities must be capable
of direct transferTal to an electoral
process.
Self-government will provide us
Canberra residents with the neces
sary power of the ballot box.
GILBERT ARNOLD
Forrest.
$