Page 1586 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Collaery!
MR BERRY: That is twice. Though the present planning process is clearly inappropriate for modern conditions, the challenge for Canberra post-self-government is to retain the advantages of the existing system while at the same time making the system more open, accountable and accessible to the citizens of Canberra. This was the process - you guessed it, Mr Speaker - that was started under the Follett Labor Government more than 15 months ago. The planning legislation now under consideration had its genesis in the drafting instructions issued for public debate by the Labor Government. They set the framework for the present Bills involving commitment to the leasehold system, an open, transparent appeal system, low cost Administrative Appeals Tribunal rather than the Supreme Court, with general third party appeal rights, provision for open environmental impact inquiries, and a degree of certainty to the planning and development processes.
Mr Speaker, this is extremely ironic and, dare I say it, embarrassing for the government members opposite, particularly Mr Collaery and those Liberal members. I will leave Mr Duby out of this, because his interests are entirely different to those involved with planning and it would be difficult to make him blush. Well, there are ways of doing it.
It is supremely ironic that these committees are examining the Alliance Government's draft planning legislation some 15 months after that Government took office because of one of the alleged failures of the Follett Government cited in that grab for power. Of course, the failure was supposed to have been the - - -
Mr Collaery: I will give it to you. You could not make any decisions; you only issued a discussion paper.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: That is the third time. The alleged failure was that the planning legislation was not in place within six months of forming the first ever Labor Government. While Labor was condemned for not finishing the job inside six months, the Alliance, after a further 16 months, is still trying to come to grips with the issue. It still has not come to grips with it. It has taken 16 months and we still have not seen the legislation laid on the table. All that has happened is that we have been promised a revised draft. It has been waved around in this Assembly, but it certainly has not been tabled.
Mr Moore: It has not been made public.
Mr Jensen: It has been made public.
MR BERRY: It has not been made public!
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