Page 999 - Week 04 - Thursday, 18 June 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
small retaining walls and, of course, the letterbox and the gnome. The amendments, hopefully, will encourage the installation of environmentally responsible domestic rainwater tanks, which will in future not require building approval, although they will need to comply with planning requirements. We will not be encouraging large corrugated iron rainwater tanks at the front of houses, but this will mean that the frustration that many Canberrans have had in getting permits and approvals for rainwater tanks will be removed.
Of course, there need to be upper limits of size beyond which minor structures would continue to require normal building approval for public safety and health reasons. The works which are exempted will be detailed in regulations. The Bill will also exempt existing minor building structures from the building approval process. This will at one stroke remove a lot of the inconvenience which so often is met during the selling and buying of established homes. Conveyancing solicitors will be made aware of these exemptions and it is anticipated that it will have some impact on conveyancing costs.
Certain other kinds of approval will still be necessary. If the place is on the heritage places register or provisional heritage places register, work will be controlled under the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991. If water or electricity is connected to the building, the existing regulations for plumbers and electricians would continue to apply. So it is not open slather to do the wiring for your pergola yourself; public safety considerations apply. Certain building control powers are retained in relation to minor building works where considered necessary to minimise the risk of adverse effects on health or safety or on visual amenity. A power of demolition will remain for instances where the work is unsafe, does not meet the design and siting or easements requirements, or the conditions of the lease. To ensure that the building controller has power over exempting building on easements for electricity and other utilities, the Bill will extend the building controller's existing demolition powers. Madam Speaker, the Bill reduces the cost of minor home improvements, simplifies the process of conveyancing, and releases public resources to be employed more productively. I present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Kaine) adjourned.
NRMA-ACT ROAD SAFETY TRUST BILL 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.23): I present the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust Bill 1992.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The purpose of this Bill is to give legislative force to the charitable nature of the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust and provide for appropriate exemptions from liability for the trustees, the NRMA and the ACT Government in respect of activities undertaken in fulfilling the aims of the trust.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .