Page 5637 - Week 17 - Thursday, 5 December 1991

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What we have to remember here is that there are two types of development as far as we are concerned. There is properly planned, well-thought-out development, and there is developer-driven development. Consider the sorts of problems that we have seen develop in Civic over the years. I think people from the NCDC now freely admit that they got it wrong. A fine example of an inappropriate development that went wrong is the car park across the road here. At the time it was thought that there were going to be problems associated with car parking.

I think anyone who walks around Civic, up past the TAFE or across to the Lakeside, will see quite clearly that maybe that decision was inappropriate at the time. That is why we think it is important to add this paragraph to subclause 164(4) to provide a requirement for the Planning Authority to consider this in making its recommendation to the Executive. I encourage members to support it.

MR WOOD (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.17): Mr Deputy Speaker, I understand what Mr Jensen is saying, but predominantly it is for the Land Division to determine the appropriateness of the timing. It is not necessarily a planning matter to the degree that Mr Jensen claims it to be. It is the Land Division that handles leases. It is as simple as that. We oppose this amendment.

MR MOORE (12.17): Mr Deputy Speaker, it seems to me that this is a very sensible amendment by Mr Jensen and that the comment by Mr Wood reflects a lack of understanding of an overview by Mr Wood. I accept that it is the Land Division that does that, but what planners ought be about is long-term planning and trying to determine just when things occur within the planning. That is an absolutely critical part of planning. Our discussion on the Territory Plan and the zoning system within the Territory Plan indicates that the current thinking is away from that. The critical responsibility of planners is to ensure that development occurs at the right time. This is a very important and very sensible amendment.

MR JENSEN (12.18): I rise briefly to get on the record my amazement at the statement by Mr Wood. I fully endorse the comments made by Mr Moore. We are talking here about land planning and development. That is what we are really talking about. To try to separate the two and say that one does not relate to the other, I think, as Mr Moore said, is to completely misunderstand the whole situation of proper planning and development to which all of us in this Assembly are committed or should be committed.

MR WOOD: (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.18): Mr Deputy Speaker, I suppose that again it is haste. The Planning Authority does these things; it is a matter of course. There is no question about that. The Land Division, nevertheless, is the one that writes out the lease at the end of the day.


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