“My experience has always been that if you engage early with the people who know their area best, then you're going to get a lot more useful information to develop your policy ideas, rather than developing your policy ideas in the absence of that important input.”
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So said the ACT’s chief planner Ben Ponton in a Canberra Times profile some months ago. He was referring more to building and development at that stage, but he could easily have been referring to the latest vexed issue in Canberra’s unstoppable journey to enlightenment.
This time, it’s drones. Gungahlin residents were due to attend a community meeting about this complex issue on Wednesday night, and in particular the fact that the company currently running a drone delivery trial in Tuggeranong is looking to expand its business into the northern suburbs.
This is despite the fact that the ACT government has agreed to launch an inquiry into the Bonython trial, which has been plagued by community angst over noise, privacy concerns and a perceived lack of government and regulatory oversight.
Wing, the tech company behind the drones, has already selected a site in Mitchell - responding to community concerns that the base be away from residential suburbs - and looks set to start delivering things - so far food and pharmacy supplies - to Gunghalin, Palmerston, Harrison, Crace and Franklin, with a long-term view of operating flights throughout Canberra, as well as other cities and towns across Australia.
Wing chief executive James Ryan Burgess said the company had high hopes for Canberra.
"We decided to invest in our first ever ongoing operation in Canberra because it's a growing, innovative city and Canberrans have a reputation as early adopters of new technology," Mr Burgess said.
It’s all starting to sound suspiciously like a done deal, despite the project still being firmly in the trial stage.
And the trial has definitely been worth the publicity; Canberra has always been known as a forward-thinking and progressive city.
Delivery drones have flown in other parts of the world, but Mr Burgess says Wing's permanent Canberra home would be "the first location of its kind with the world's most advanced drone delivery service".
But our rush to embrace new technology should not ignore public consultation processes. While there has been a shift towards public consultation in recent years, there has long been a perception in Canberra that major, daily-life-changing decisions are made on behalf of the city’s residents without enough information going to the public first.
What if the residents of Gungahlin decide, unanimously, that they’d rather not deal with the noise and lack of privacy that Bonython residents have complained of? What if it’s decided that Canberra, as an already liveable and progressive city, has no real need for drones to deliver things at all?
Drones may well become the delivery method of the future. But we - and Wing - should not assume this as fact before a proper inquiry has been held. There should always be the option on the table for something not to go ahead.
