Page 1660 - Week 06 - Thursday, 20 May 1993
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The PDI Committee, in its consideration of the material before it, continued on the path of consultation, holding three public hearings on 6, 20 and 21 April last. As Ms Szuty has mentioned, one of those public hearings was held in Belconnen - a first for this Assembly, I understand. Hopefully, it will not be a last. In response to the PDI Committee's advertising, inviting submissions to its proceedings, the public made a further in excess of 40 submissions. There can be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind, I believe, of the level of consultation undertaken in this whole process, from the very beginning back in 1990.
The process undertaken by both the Planning Authority and the PDI Committee has been exhaustive. It could not have been concluded within the timeframe we set ourselves without the assistance and cooperation of a great number of people outside the committee. I cannot overstate sufficiently the dedication the Chief Planner, Mr Tomlins, and his colleagues displayed in handling the committee's requests. As Mr Kaine mentioned, they probably worked on weekends; I believe that they worked round the clock in many instances, and I want to place on record my personal congratulations and thanks to them. It could not have been done without that dedication.
The other people that need to be commented on here are the members of the community. They attended public hearings; they made submissions in the first instance. Many of them went ahead with making submissions in the second instance directly to the PDI Committee. That is the sort of commitment from the community that our consultation process promotes, and I want to congratulate everyone in the community who took advantage of and participated in that system. In most cases, it is done in their own time, and in most cases over the weekends, when they have other family commitments to consider. The participation of the community in this process should be publicly recognised and should give us encouragement as members of this Assembly about the worth of the public consultation process.
I wish to thank my colleagues on the committee. The deliberations were exhaustive. There were times when we had to work very hard to come to a consensus position, but we were able to do that in every instance. I think that is a great commendation of all people on the committee. Rod Power and the secretariat, similarly to the people in the Planning Authority, I believe went well beyond the call of duty. I agree with Mr Kaine that we have seen a miracle occur in the report being produced in such a short time.
This whole exercise has been a great learning experience for me, both as to the extent of the success of our committee system and, more individually, as to my understanding of the planning processes within this Territory and how the community, the Government and the Assembly can work in such a consultative and appropriate fashion to reach what I believe is a good conclusion. As has already been said, it is not the end; it is merely the end of a very significant part of the process. The document produced and eventually adopted by the Executive, in whatever form they agree, will be a living document and will continue to be examined by the community in the future. If the consultation process and the commitment from the community in the past are any indication, we can look forward in a very constructive fashion to that occurring in the future. I, along with other members of the committee, have no hesitation in commending to this Assembly both the report and attachment A to the report.
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