Page 2869 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
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she was prepared to give an undertaking to the Assembly that by October we would have planning legislation. We ended up with a white paper and then finally, towards the end of October, drafting instructions for the legislation. Even those drafting instructions did not include probably one of the most important aspects of the planning process within the ACT: the provision of a reasonable, accessible, affordable appeals system for all people of the ACT, not just the people who are concerned about changes in their suburb but the people who wish to develop areas within the ACT.
It is just as appropriate for developers to have a right of appeal if they wish to come into the ACT and they find that the Government is making decisions that they do not agree with. There is probably not one person in this house at this point in time who would agree that the Supreme Court is the appropriate location for appeal on planning matters. However, the Supreme Court was chosen because it was in the previous legislation.
For two years the people of the ACT were saying, "Give us something that we can all use and we can all have access to. Make sure that the planning legislation and the appeals legislation provide for open, consultative government". That was one of the key planks the Rally ran on. All I am saying is that I regret that, when I asked this question during the Estimates Committee, we were told that the reason why there was no money being allocated under this budget to a planning appeals process was that it would not be ready to be set up by the end of the financial year.
We have had a government in this place, responsible for the running of the ACT, since 11 May 1989, and it will be more than 12 months before the people of the ACT are given an accessible appeals system. It is an indictment of a government which prides itself on being an open, consultative government that it was not able to get its act together in this very important area. Even now we still do not have the drafting instructions in the planning area because, as I recall, they have got some more work to do.
I have got a cupboard full of discussions on the planning appeals system for the ACT, and I am sure the Government could have come up with something a little more appropriate than what the Assembly has before it at the moment.
MR COLLAERY (4.52): I endorse Mr Jensen's comments but go further and say that we have asked the Chief Minister from time to time whether and when she will be appointing a permanent Territory planner and whether that position will be advertised nationally or internationally, as we put it. We are as interested as probably any fair-minded citizens in this Territory to break the log jam in planning approvals which clearly exists in the Territory.
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