Page 1656 - Week 06 - Thursday, 20 May 1993
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While we have been off doing other more pleasant things, they have been working very hard to ensure that we could present this document on time. I congratulate them and thank them for that. Finally, of course, I thank the committee secretary, Rod Power. How he was able in such a short time to produce this document in a legible form and to correlate all the views and summarise all the issues and put them together in such a fashion, I do not know. I talked about major miracles. Rod Power has wrought such a major miracle, in my view, in producing this document. I thank him and congratulate him for that also. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I commend this document to the Assembly.
MS SZUTY (11.35): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the draft Territory Plan was released for public comment some months ago now and over 1,000 of our citizens have responded to it. Indeed, the chair of our committee has those submissions displayed on his desk in this chamber today. The ACT Planning Authority, to its great credit, has responded to those submissions systematically and comprehensively, and included with those submissions on Mr Lamont's desk are the summaries the ACT Planning Authority has provided. Each submission has been summarised, issues coded and responses prepared for every issue that has been raised by members of the community. These codes have been indexed and cross-referenced, and people who made submissions to the authority have had their issues responded to. While people may not be happy with the ACT Planning Authority's response, they cannot argue that the planners have not responded to their concerns. Although I have received some complaints about the consultation process regarding the finalisation of the Territory Plan, I cannot take issue with this process, and I commend the ACT Planning Authority on their endeavours.
On 1 December 1992, the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee received from the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning the draft variation and background papers to the draft Territory Plan, some 30 documents in all. Again, they are displayed on Mr Lamont's desk for us all to see. It has realistically taken six months to consider, and I know that most of my colleagues spent some of their Christmas holidays reading much of the relevant documentation.
I am pleased that the committee called for further submissions from groups and individuals where they remained dissatisfied with the ACT Planning Authority's responses to the issues raised in their submissions. Some 30 submissions were received and three public hearings were held. The first hearing was held on the public record in the Belconnen Churches Centre for interested groups and residents from Belconnen to raise regional issues. Again, this process was a first for a standing committee of the Assembly and was well received. The second hearing was held here in the Assembly building to enable people to address issues of general principle and policy. During the third public hearing, the ACT Planning Authority put their further views on the matters raised by the community during the public hearings on the public record. This process greatly assisted members of the committee in working through a number of outstanding issues and in clarifying our views on the Territory Plan.
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