Page 4727 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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I would suggest to you, Mr Speaker, and other members, that there may be some problems with that. What we are really doing is providing no appeal whatsoever for the building of something like, say, the Monash Freeway or the Eastern Freeway or the Tuggeranong Parkway. There is no appeal whatsoever. That is it - finished, bust, the end.
Going up a little further on that page, it is very interesting to see that in relation to the design and siting of buildings in that area, which is the controlled activity referred to, there are no exemptions. In other words, there are total appeal rights for buildings in that area. It is also interesting to note that in that same section - just as there is, I think you will find, in almost every schedule that is related to every PLUZ in relation to heritage - the controlled activity is work affecting the requirements for the conservation of the heritage significance of places listed in the Heritage Places Register. There are no exemptions provided for that. That means that every decision in relation to a controlled activity there is fully appealable.
On those bases, just on that particular one, I think it is important to see what this particular document is allowed to do and what this legislation allows this document to do. I think this is the point that my colleague Mr Moore and my colleague Mr Collaery were referring to as well.
One of the other areas where I think it is important to note that there is no appeal relates to the residential planning land use areas. As we know, in the ACT, for a number of years, businesses have been operating in residential areas. That has generally been known to the community out there as a section 10 approval. This planning document, on page 67, provides the various performance policies and criteria related to the operation of a business within a home.
What happens if someone wants to open up a business next door to you? You do not know anything about the Territory Plan; you do not have a clue about it; you were out of town when all of this happened. You came back to the ACT, came back to your home, if you like, after a period of two years away, and all of a sudden someone wants to open up a business next door to you and operate out of their home.
Because these criteria have been approved, the Territory Plan has been approved - all that sort of stuff - you, as a resident near that business, in fact have no right of appeal. You have no rights whatsoever. I suggest, Mr Speaker, that the least one could expect in this situation, if someone is going to open up a business next door to you, is some right of appeal, some right of involvement in relation to whether that business should go ahead and whether it is appropriate.
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