Page 150 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 1990
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Mr Speaker, the matter of public importance that Mr Whalan has raised is one of the prime issues facing the ACT Government at this time. It goes to the heart of the real role of the Territory government and its relationship with the Federal government. It has serious implications for finance and other issues and is a subject that, despite Mr Whalan's throwaway denigrating comments, has been given a great deal of my attention since I assumed office two months ago.
For these reasons, I am pleased that Mr Whalan has brought the matter up. I look forward to his support and that of the other members of his party in bringing the issues to the immediate attention of the Federal Government and having them resolved in a way which is equitable and which lives up to the objectives that were espoused in the period leading up to the establishment of self-government in the ACT.
This one issue could well set the tone for the long-term relationships between this Government and the Federal Government. We must demand that we be treated as the sovereign entity that we now are, so that the objectives of self-government for the ACT can be fully realised and the respective governments acknowledge the powers that have been set down.
When the legislation to give the ACT self-government was being debated in the Parliament, the view of the Commonwealth Government was that it was time for the people of the ACT to look after their own affairs, with the Commonwealth reserving to itself only those powers which were necessary for the protection of the national interest.
Mr Holding, in his second reading speech on the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Bill, said:
The ACT will be responsible for the normal range of State-type planning and development matters. A territorial planning authority will be set up. It will be responsible for developing and managing a Territory plan not inconsistent with the National Capital Plan. It will also be able to set out the detailed planning, design and development conditions for all land in the Territory except designated national capital areas.
When the Bill was debated in the Parliament, as part of the package of self-government legislation, there was agreement from both sides that local planning was to be the prerogative of the ACT Legislative Assembly. Mr Holding's second reading speech also said:
Under new financial arrangements that are already in place, ACT citizens will pay for territorial planning and development activities like the rest of us. Fairness and equity requires that there
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