Page 3511 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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looking at this issue more closely, this legislation will provide for the renewal of commercial leases subject to the lessee paying the determined fee. The actual level of this fee will be considered separately by the Government. The renewal of residential leases will attract only an administrative fee for the issue of new lease documents.
The third issue concerns the role of the Assembly in relation to Territory Plan variations. The Government realised that the disallowance provisions relating to plan variations which appeared in earlier drafts of the legislation did not support the objective that the Assembly should have the ultimate authority for planning principles. Accordingly, the Bill has been amended to include a deemed disallowance provision in relation to plan variations. This means that, if a member of the Assembly tables a motion of disallowance, the Government must debate it or the variation will lapse.
Further, unlike other subordinate legislation, the variation will not take effect until after its passage through the Assembly, provided that it has not been disallowed. The deemed disallowance provision now goes a long way to according to the Assembly its proper role in ACT planning. It is also significant that the Assembly's role is pre-eminent to any other Commonwealth, State or Territory jurisdiction in Australia which deals with planning matters.
The fourth and final issue is related to the inquiries and assessments part of the Bill. The Government believes that the earlier concept of a consultants register conflicts with the objective of ensuring that each environmental assessment is undertaken by a properly qualified and experienced consultant. Under the original proposal, the names of consultants could be entered in a register with the approval of the Minister. Where an assessment was required, the proponent could select any consultant from the register, irrespective of whether they had the expertise or not, to undertake that particular assessment. Additionally, the proponent could engage his or her own consultant, subject to ministerial approval.
To make the selection process for consultants simpler and more effective, we have abandoned the notion of maintaining a register of consultants. The Bill now provides that, when an assessment is required, the Minister specifies the consultant to undertake the assessment in accordance with criteria included in regulations. The Minister may make this selection after seeking nominations from proponents. In this way it is far more likely that, for each type of assessment required under the Act, the most appropriate consultant will be engaged.
I would now like to outline the policy initiatives in each of the Bill's six principal parts. Part 1 covers preliminary matters, including the definition of terms used throughout the Bill. Part 2 deals with planning. Members
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