Page 5003 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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MR MOORE (10.03): The term Mr Connolly used was "a blank cheque". The note that I had made for my speech was "carte blanche". The message is just the same. The concern with this Bill is the freedom that it does give to the Planning Authority. However, let me start by saying that I can see the need for this Bill. I do not intend to oppose it in principle, but I have some major concerns about it.
The most important concern illustrates the irony, of course, for members of the Rally who are supporting this so enthusiastically, as we heard from Mr Jensen. Really, what you are saying is, "While this Bill is in place, trust us. Trust the new Planning Authority and leave it to the bureaucrats". Of course, with reference to planning, the Rally was predicated on, as much as anything, just the opposite of that.
As I stated, I realise that we are in a difficult position. We do need to take some action, and there is no doubt about that. What is clearly the case is that this Bill has been slapped together. It has been put together at very, very short notice when suddenly somebody has realised, "Oh dear, the transition period just might end, and we have a problem".
Of course, this transition period has caused problems all the way along because the Federal Government had difficulty with it in the first place. They have now moved to amend their difficulties. That has put this Government in a position where they have been caught short. The only way they can get around it is to force this Bill through very, very quickly. I presume that if Mr Stevenson comes down and speaks to it he will give a similar speech to the one he gave earlier today, about ensuring that Bills have, at least, an appropriate time for consultation.
This Bill has not had an appropriate time for consultation. I must say that, when the Chief Minister offered the Opposition the opportunity for a briefing, that letter went to the Leader of the Opposition, Ms Follett. I certainly did not get a copy of that letter and, as I understand, nor did Mr Stevenson. However, I certainly appreciate the fact that on quite short notice the members of the appropriate department were prepared to come and brief me after they had approval through the Chief Minister's office earlier today. I certainly appreciated that, and I certainly appreciated the competence with which they did that.
Let me draw attention to the attitude of that department in putting this Bill together and the fact that they recognise the sort of operation they will be running. I will get to this later in the detail stage, but if you look at section 16, subsection 4, it states:
In addition to its power under subsection (1), the Authority may, at any time before the submission or re-submission of a draft Plan to the Executive, revise the draft Plan to correct any formal error.
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