Page 4194 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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To conclude, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is no question in my mind that this is good legislation. The Labor Party and the Liberals can argue about whose initiative it was and where the good philosophy comes from, and that will make for some good healthy debate. But it is good legislation; it is landmark legislation. It will be a model and, subject to a few differences of view being dealt with and some sort of agreement being reached over the next few days, I am sure that we will have an excellent piece of legislation, accompanied by an excellent Territory Plan in the very near future.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.37): I suppose that at the outset I really should thank Mr Kaine for his temperate remarks on this legislation. They were constructive criticisms from an opposition. Mr Wood is to be commended for the massive task that has been involved in getting this legislation to the stage that it can be now debated at the in-principle stage.
This issue of planning legislation has been really the largest hurdle for the first ACT Assembly to get over. The criticism is widespread in the ACT business community and other sectors of the community that there are major problems with the planning and development process in the ACT. Lack of certainty, excessive rule-making and imprecision in the way to go about getting planning approval are common criticisms, and the challenge for the first Territory Government was to establish a planning and land use regime which would remove the uncertainty and provide an appropriate balance between community and conservation interests and development interests.
The first Labor Government started that process with the instructions, which were made public, as to the format of the legislation and the basic principles, which have not been departed from throughout the period since. Ironically, as we said repeatedly in the period that we were in opposition, it was the Labor Government's alleged failure to have the legislation in its final form and on the table in the first six months of self-government that led the Residents Rally to move against the Government, or at least that is what members said in their speeches when the first Labor Government was brought down. Then, in the 18 months of Alliance Government, there was fitful progress. We saw bits and pieces come out in dribs and drabs.
It has fallen again to a Labor Government to bring the legislation to its finality. Certainly, the departmental officers that have been involved from my department, the legislative draftspeople and the Law Office do need to be commended. The enormous complexity of taking complex ideas in town planning and environmental issues and turning them into legislation has not been easy, but it has been achievable.
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