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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 731 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I think there were some in this debate who, quite unfairly, fed the view that a proposal to have a trial on the lake would necessarily have led, through the thin end of the wedge argument, to it being allowed on the lake; that once they have had a trial, once they have been there for four weeks, they will be there forever. That kind of debate is quite destructive because, in fact, our Territory Plan is very difficult to change. If it is going to be that difficult to change, it ought at least be fairly easy to put an argument in at one end, because we know that it is going to have to face a lot of obstacles before it comes out the other end, if it ever does. Ms Horodny was not here when we debated the Territory Plan and the Land (Planning and Environment) Act back in 1991, or whenever it was. That was a very long and tortuous debate, almost as tortuous as getting variations to the Territory Plan through. I believe, Mr Speaker, very firmly, that we should be facilitating in this place a process to allow people to put things through that treadmill, if you like, however difficult it might be to get something out the other end.

The element of a trial as part of that process is not necessarily part of every proposal to vary the Territory Plan, and that, I admit, was a process that I believed ought to be part of this process of consideration of a variation. I think there is all too much speculation and entirely unfounded debate that goes on about these sorts of things which you cannot test unless you actually see what you are talking about. At a meeting in Tuggeranong that I attended Mr Wood made a suggestion that a trial was illegal. I can assure him quite firmly that that is not the case that the advisers in the Planning Authority have put to me. It therefore fell to us to decide what we do with these sorts of things in that circumstance.

I say to members that in the future I certainly will look with very much more caution on proposals to amend the Territory Plan that are urged upon me from members of the community; ones that suggest changes that have not been considered or have not been put forward for a period of time. I would say to members that that leaves a certain gap in our administration of the planning system because we do need to ensure that that system is an open system, that it is amenable to change, that it is capable of being interacted with by the community. The way some of us responded to that proposal did not assist that process.

Mr Speaker, turning to the question of water quality, maintenance of a high level of water quality for the ACT's waterways is extremely important. This Government affirms its commitment not just to maintaining the present level of quality in ACT waterways but also to improving that quality.

Mr Wood: You are not spending any money on it. Outside of ACTEW, you are not spending any money on it.

MR HUMPHRIES: Again, that is not true. That is simply not true, Mr Wood. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Mr Wood: You had better give us a ministerial statement on it one day.

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