Page 1449 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
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an emotional response - to go and prepare what has to be a rational response, because it is a draft variation. It is no good saying, "I do not like it. I do not feel like it. It makes me angry", even though those things are true.
What is critical is that people go through the process of understanding what the Government is trying to achieve and understand some of the alternatives. It may well be that they disagree with all those alternatives; but at least they understand, in a non-emotional way, what is the rationale behind it, what is the logical thinking, and the issue becomes not an issue of emotion but an issue of logic. Mind you, I still believe as an issue of logic that it will be entirely inappropriate for these school sites to be bulldozed. It is far better for the schools to be retained and to be reopened after the next election. Nevertheless, I think the appropriate procedure must be followed. It must be followed in such a way that it appears to be, using computer jargon, user-friendly.
Mr Speaker and members of the Assembly: I urge you to take this motion very seriously. Anyone reading through that advertisement would realise that the language is not the language of ordinary people. It is not the language that is designed to reach out and say to people, "Here is an invitation to comment. We are interested in your opinion". It is a bit of bureaucratese that says just the opposite to people. The message is quite clearly, "Look, we have to go ahead and do this. It does not really matter what you think; but, if you have to put a submission in, we are going to make it an invitation for you to comment". It is not good enough. It is something that needs to be reviewed, corrected and resolved.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (12.07): Mr Speaker, the Government rejects Mr Moore's proposition in its entirety. What he has done, of course, is to spend his 15 or 20 minutes appealing to the emotional, and not concentrating on what the whole process of planning is about, and that is that it has to be a logical process. He alluded to it but did nothing more than pay lip service to it.
Let me outline in context how and on what basis the ACT Planning Authority undertakes variations to land use. The advertisement in the Canberra Times on Friday, 12 April, was the first advertisement placed by the ACT Planning Authority since it became a permanent planning authority in the middle of last month. The Interim Planning Act 1990 which establishes the authority as a permanent one was passed by this Assembly late last year and came into effect in March. It provides for a quite specific form of the notice calling for public comment on proposed variations to the Territory Plan.
It is not up to the planners to make up their minds what they are going to put in there. Our legislation requires a specific form. Under the legislation the authority is required to publish a notice in a daily paper and they have
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