Page 134 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 May 1989
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the preservation of an environment which is unique or typical of a particular era in Canberra's development.
The social and economic advantages to be gained from carefully planned residential regeneration are significant. These include a freeing up of the market to allow for greater flexibility in providing a range of housing from standard low density to high density. This will bring within the reach of first home buyers some greater choice of where and how they may wish to live. By bringing more families into Canberra's inner suburbs, community facilities can be fully supported, and thus we will achieve a more economic use of our resources.
Also, we need to balance our concerns for our physical environment with other important social objectives and benefits. For example, redevelopment can permit older residents to continue to live in their home neighbourhoods, which enables them to retain their social contacts and lifestyles. The Government is committed to ensuring that sufficient serviceable land is available to prevent shortages. This must be a high priority. We share the community's concern for the preservation of our past and we recognise the need to maintain the integrity of the older suburbs.
We will strive to achieve a fair and responsible balance between the goal of heritage conservation, the need to provide land for adequate and affordable housing and the interests of leaseholders who want to improve their properties. The heritage legislation which we introduce will satisfy all of these goals.
The Government also recognises that heritage legislation needs to complement and support the leasing arrangements in the ACT. The Government is committed to the maintenance of the leasehold system as the property tenure for the ACT and believes it is the best means of ensuring orderly land development. The leasehold system prevents speculation and provides an ideal basis for stable and predictable planning decisions. The aims of the leasehold system should be to provide certainty, responsiveness and even-handedness in approach.
Heritage legislation which this Government will introduce will support and complement those absolute principles of the leasehold system. Commitment to these principles does not of course mean that the heritage legislation should prevent an open consultative process providing ready access to all who wish to contribute properly to the debate on heritage issues. The heritage legislation in association with the changes to the leasehold system legislation will provide a proper balance and have the effect of overcoming the conflicting interests which have had the effect of providing a negative force in the proper advancement of both heritage and leasing interests.
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