Page 34 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 16 February 1993
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principles and policies for the protection and growth of Canberra. It provides the strategic framework for planning Canberra. It needs to and does provide vision for the bush capital. Secondly, it provides a certainty. It is the statutory base for day-to-day growth and decision making in the ACT. It accurately defines - or will do when all the processes are finished - what may occur and how it may occur in the Territory, but it always does so under the guidance of the principles and policies we have set out.
The plan provides a clear vision in terms of Canberra's broad metropolitan structure for the next 15 years, to a population of about 400,000 people. In doing so, it proposes some changed ways of doing things, because Canberra is not going to stay the wonderful place it is if it continues going the way it is. Nothing can ever stay the same, and we have to make amendments to what we do today to ensure that we keep Canberra the way we want it. In other words, the plan is the very opposite of lost opportunities. It will create opportunities for economic growth, for improvements in service delivery, for urban renewal and better use of infrastructure and existing resources.
The residential policies in the plan are at the cutting edge of new developments in this field. The Commonwealth and the States are all promoting improvements to major urban areas through renewal and redevelopment. This concern is reflected, for example, in the Commonwealth housing strategy and building better cities program. While others are researching the matter, the ACT is putting it into practice. The policies in the plan are expected to lead to a much wider choice of housing and to meet the demand in a more efficient way. They are consistent with the model codes for residential development being formulated in the States and, being performance based, are a major improvement on the traditional basis of quantitative controls.
At the same time, it is the greenest plan in Australia. Through integration of land use planning, environment and heritage features, it aims to provide for growth, but in an environmentally friendly and ecologically sound way. It supports our determination to retain Canberra as the bush capital, while at the same time providing for the development of a viable metropolitan city. Energy efficiency is of particular concern to the Government. The policies in the plan are being supported by a range of educational activities to promote an awareness of energy issues within the building industry and amongst home buyers. I continue to give my attention to the ways in which they should and will be incorporated in the plan, and I know that the chairman of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee has particular views about that, which I appreciate.
Members will be aware of the Government's commitment to urban renewal. It is our aim to make better use of existing infrastructure by promoting higher density development within and adjacent to existing settled areas. This has the multiple effect of making the provision of services easier, improving the viability of existing operations, and at the same time freeing up government funds that would otherwise be required for construction of infrastructure in greenfields areas. The Territory Plan has that visionary approach in that it encompasses those policies I have referred to, albeit rather too briefly, in the last few minutes. It sets out to provide the basis for planning in the future to ensure that the ACT retains all that we want for it and more.
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