Page 2989 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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The minority Labor Government cannot understand that the institution of parliament, the legislature, must come before the preservation of ephemeral political aims. The Government has failed lamentably to adopt a statesmanlike role. Despite restrained prompting from the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and direct requests by the Rally, this Government has done nothing either in its public utterances or in its legislative program to reassure the judiciary of their tenure after 30 June next year and of the necessity for judicial office not to be seen to be at the whim of this politically charged chamber.
Open, consultative government, Mr Speaker, became a joke, a hollow promise held out at the election and withdrawn immediately the ballot was closed and we had our first question time. This is not a question of style, Mr Speaker, but of propriety. Paul Whalan chose to govern in a minority framework dependent on gamesmanship - the playing off of individuals and party groups. Perhaps if the Chief Minister had entered the ruck the outcome would have been different. But it is quite clear that this Government, with its influential Deputy Chief Minister, cannot continue.
This motion is not therefore, Mr Speaker, merely a judgment of Rosemary Follett. Of great concern to the Rally has been the increasing extent to which the Chief Minister has deferred to the Deputy Chief Minister on planning issues and planning questions. There has been no proper initiative taken to meet community concerns, including developmental planning log jams. This has had a disabling effect on the building industry and/or development in general. Responsible developers have approached the Rally in recent times to indicate to us that the planning process is in meltdown. Community groups have again begun to form protest committees, and in Pearce, in Watson, in Page and in other places we are back to the protests of 1986-87 with no independent planning appeal body to resolve those issues.
The clear message, Mr Speaker, coming from the election of four members of the Residents Rally in March was the need for there to be a decisive initiative in the planning area. Instead, months down the road and after pressure, we received a discussion paper - a white paper - which cobbled together the fruits of our community work in 1987 and 1988. The paper failed to bring forward a discussion paper or draft legislation for the creation of a planning appeals system. There is thus a crisis in development and planning approvals in this Territory. No provision was made in the budget for a planning tribunal and for the preparatory work thereto. The Deputy Chief Minister waded into this mess recently by attacking the National Capital Planning Authority and creating more division for us to unwind.
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