Page 721 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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by the Government, it is likely that the AAT may be quite busy on other matters in the short term, particularly in rating and valuation appeals.
The other issue that concerns a lot of the smaller people in this community is that of legal costs. Some time ago there was an enlightened decision of the Supreme Court by Mr Justice Kelly, which has been thrown into some doubt by another decision in the Federal Court, but the Rally believes that there are problems in providing adequate legal representation, particularly for groups. In the absence of class action accessibility in Australia, there are problems in determining whether government funds should be allocated to precedental decisions on planning matters. These matters should be addressed quickly. There are community groups in the ACT with an immediate interest in those issues.
The implementation of a land use planning appeals system or a planning environment tribunal, call it what you may, is of great urgency and of great import in our community. If we are to be, and still aspire to be, the best planned city in Australia then perhaps the structure we create can be the best planning and environment appeals tribunal. Given our proximity to current environmental protest actions, and given the consciousness that we have on the Monaro plateau to afforestation and deafforestation, soil conservation, water supply and other ecological issues, surely, given all the debate, we should be able to bring in at an early date a planning-environmental appeals tribunal.
Let me refer to the great discussions, as we like to call them - and my colleagues Mr Moore and Mr Jensen will well recall those enormous gatherings - which resulted in a truce between the warring parties and finally a decision by us all. I well remember one of the Master Builders Association members, Mr Bob Winnel, finally agreeing that what we really wanted in this town was certainty in the system. There is no certainty in the system at the moment. There is a level of suspicion, there is a level of apprehension, there is a level of disinclination from some developers because they are concerned that their proposals may be rejected out of hand arbitrarily, and there is concern among residents who are fearful that that green space near them may go.
This uncertainty should not be allowed to continue in the Canberra community. That uncertainty creates to some extent the types of questions that one sees in this house in vexed situations. It is the uncertainty, the level of suspicion, the level of concern and the lack of consultation. It was the lack of consultation that really was one of the birthrights of the Residents Rally. That birthright, that call to be consulted, which was ignored and which this Government will ignore at its peril, gave birth to the Rally.
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