Page 151 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 1990
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now be an accompanying and unambiguous division between national and local responsibilities. This Bill achieves this.
From that, the residents of the Territory were entitled to expect that there would be developed by the National Capital Planning Authority on behalf of the Commonwealth Government a draft National Capital Plan which was limited to the areas in which the Commonwealth had a basic and ongoing interest and whose policies were restricted to those necessary to protect the particular national character of Canberra.
Instead, we have a draft National Capital Plan which is in effect a State plan for the ACT and whose impact goes well beyond the issues and areas that could reasonably be termed national. The resulting level of public debate and the fact that the subject of the National Capital Plan has been raised as a matter of public importance in the Assembly indicate that the unambiguous division between national and local responsibilities described by Minister Holding has not been achieved. This was obvious, I suggest, as soon as the draft plan was issued. It was criticised by many local groups. The former Chief Minister, Ms Follett, reported that she had taken up with the appropriate Commonwealth Minister her Government's concerns that the National Capital Plan had exceeded its objectives.
I am confident that with goodwill on both sides many of the difficulties which have arisen can be resolved and a clear division of responsibility can be established. I believe that most of the issues can be resolved at officer level if the objectives of the legislation are paramount in their considerations.
Mr Speaker, I intend to maintain a close scrutiny of those negotiations, to see that both plans to be prepared to cover the ACT - the National Capital Plan, and the Territory plan to be prepared by the Interim Territory Planning Authority - respond to the spirit of the legislation that provides for their preparation. If officer level discussions are not fruitful, I will be making full use of the provisions in the legislation which require the Federal Minister to consult with the ACT Government before the Commonwealth Government approves its plan.
It is appropriate, I think, to review just what the purposes of the plan are. The legislation sets out the objective of the National Capital Plan as being to ensure that Canberra and the Territory are planned in accordance with their national significance. The objective of the Territory plan is set out as "to ensure, in a manner not inconsistent with the National Capital Plan, the planning and development of the Territory to provide the people of the Territory with an attractive, safe and efficient environment in which to live and work and have their recreation".
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