Page 1279 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 August 1989
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The environment must be created in which existing business can expand and new business will be attracted to Canberra, yet this is exactly what the decision has denied the Canberra business community. It highlights the need to discriminate against one particular lessee in the process of changing a lease purpose clause. The strategy that will ensure this is to abolish lease purpose clauses on an individual commercial basis and replace them with a broad based zoning system.
If we had a zoning system already in place, the Canberra Times site issue would have been avoided entirely. Not only would the cumbersome and costly procedure that Concrete Constructions had to undertake to attempt to change its lease be eliminated, but the whole scenario of its being denied that change would not have occurred.
Mr Speaker, it is unfair to discriminate against one lessee. This is especially true given the contribution that that individual developer has made to the Canberra economy over many years. It has, for example, been operating in the national capital for 60 years and has been responsible for buildings like the Administrative Building in Parkes, the Patent Office, the Red Hill School, Black Mountain Tower, the Australian Defence Force Academy and more recently, as the head joint venturer, the new Parliament House. There are probably many others.
In addition to the major projects the company has undertaken in Canberra, it has completed numerous other projects. It is a ludicrous situation when a company which has made such a valuable input to our region's development is refused permission to develop a low-quality, derelict structure. Concrete Constructions was officially told on two occasions, in early 1986 and again in early 1987, that its development proposal would succeed. To have one official body condone the project and another refuse it indicates the inconsistency and inappropriateness of Canberra's planning system.
Canberra has the honour of being one of the better planned cities in the world. Nevertheless, a wide range of things need to happen so that these changes continue not to occur. The process of land planning and land use must happen in a proper and planned way. As Mr Kaine has already noted, the Supreme Court's decision was within the law, but planning should not be the role of our city's court system. Excessive bureaucratic restriction of commercial activity must also be avoided. This is clearly the trap that Canberra's planning officials have fallen into with the Canberra Times site.
The planning system must provide for Canberra's expansion, especially in the business sector. Only in this way can our employment base be diversified. In encouraging business expansion, the planning system must both avoid unnecessary restrictions and pursue a predictable approach to planning.
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