Page 5781 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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MR JENSEN (3.47), in reply: Are there no further speakers? Mr Kaine is not speaking? All right. Mr Speaker, in summing up the issues that were raised in this debate, let me reiterate for the benefit of members the process for variations in relation to defined land. I quote from section 25 of the Interim Planning Act 1990. It says:
(1) Upon approval of the subdivision of a parcel of defined land, the Authority shall, by notice or notices published in the Gazette, vary the Plan to specify the purposes for which that land may be used.
(2) A notice under subsection (1) in relation to a parcel, or part of a parcel, of land shall include a map of that parcel or part showing the purposes for which identified parts of that land may be used.
It then goes on to say that the variation of the plan is to be consistent with the relevant subdivisions, any conditions, et cetera, and the principles and policies specified in the plan for the development of the relevant defined area. What we are really talking about, Mr Speaker, is the principles and policies that are defined on that single page of the proposal for Gungahlin. The Act goes on to say, and I think this is probably the key:
A variation of the Plan under subsection (1) takes effect from the date of its publication in the Gazette, or from such a later date as is specified in the notice under that subsection.
Once again, I reiterate, what we are seeking to do by allowing this process to continue is to allow, by gazettal notice, the change of a very large area from community facilities to residential.
If, for example, one of the school sites, say Holder Primary School, had been declared defined land, it would have been a simple matter for an ACT Executive, by a Gazette notice, to declare that area residential if in fact there was a policy plan saying that it was community/residential as had been proposed by the previous planning Minister. That is the sort of thing that I am talking about. Just by a simple Gazette notice you can make this very important change. By a simple Gazette notice you can change an area from community facilities through to residential. Effectively, you can wipe off a school site, and all the relevant aspects of open space that go with that for the community, by the stroke of a pen and without any process or means of appeal whatever. It is all to do with the Executive. This is the reason why we are concerned about it. This is why we are seeking to have this particular process delayed for a moment while people sit down and work out a much more equitable process by which the minor variations can be done but the major variations can be dealt with by the proper process of planning variation community consultation.
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