Page 1481 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
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Federal Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce. It talks about combined jurisdiction for development appeals in the States and Territories.
So the ACT is not the only jurisdiction in Australia that is looking at this particular issue. In fact, we are all probably fully aware - if Mr Connolly has been doing his homework on planning appeals matters - that there has been considerable discussion about the situation in Victoria in relation to planning appeals under its planning legislation. In fact, members will recall that there has been some suggestion that over 4,000 appeals on planning matters have been heard in Victoria since the introduction of the new legislation. That particular matter is probably related to the nature of the planning system in Victoria, and any suggestion that there would be a similar problem in the ACT would probably be missing the mark.
I suggest that we will probably find that the system in the ACT, with the proposals for many of the decisions to be made within the plan itself and not being subject to direct appeal, will in fact reduce the number of appeals. On that basis, I think it is quite appropriate for me to talk about this matter of where the appeals process for planning matters fits within the administrative appeals structure of the ACT.
It is important to recall the recent publicity in relation to the New South Wales Land and Environment Court. There have been some suggestions that the court has now become a QCs' paradise. In fact, in planning appeals and processes, it is now a case of, "My QC can out-trump your QC", as far as the ability to bring matters to the court is concerned. That, of course, reduces the ability of the community to participate in this process. I am sure that that is one of the matters that the New South Wales people will look at. It is one of the traps that I hope the ACT will not fall into when we review our court structures as they relate to development and planning appeals.
The Curtis report is a very important document for the people of the ACT. It is a very clear discussion paper. It provides suggestions on the way a newly self-governing ACT can take the bit between its teeth, so to speak, and conduct a review of its court structures. I welcome this opportunity to make sure that planning appeals within the ACT are brought kicking and screaming into the twentieth century as opposed to their being allowed to languish for many, many years, without any attempt to fix up the problems, under the colleagues of this Labor group opposite.
In fact, I have a vivid memory of a cartoon in the Canberra Times just prior to the election which referred to a certain Minister of a previous Federal Labor government signing documents as he was about to go out the door. Of course, a couple of those documents related to matters of planning. In fact, because of the sheer sloth of the previous Federal
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