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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 819 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

orders to be issued and dealt with quickly and simply. The appointment of a Land and Planning Commissioner, outside the Public Service, is true to the Government's election policy commitment to an independent authority to ensure the highest levels of integrity in decisions taken under the land and planning laws of this Territory.

The Government will, however, retain "call-in" powers, as exist in other jurisdictions. These are powers which enable the Government to "call in" for its decision a major proposal of Territory-wide significance. The inclusion of "call-in" powers in our planning legislation would be consistent with the Government's view that planning is an executive function. But the Government is accountable for the exercise of executive functions, which must be exercised according to law. A consequence of "calling in" a decision will be that the Assembly also acquires the capacity to exercise a role in the determination of significant proposals.

The third element is the Planning and Land Management Division. This new division will be established within the Department of Urban Services, replacing the existing structures of the Land Division and the administrative and policy functions of the ACT Planning Authority, bringing together responsibility for managing Canberra's leasehold management and land use planning. This will do much to facilitate the integration of land planning and management and produce the improvements we are all seeking. The new division's functions will fall into five key areas of responsibility - policy, land supply, area coordination, customer services and regulation. The policy group will be charged with the responsibility for producing and reviewing the Land Act and the Territory Plan, including all of the items identified by the board of inquiry under its proposed land use suitability plan. Responsibility for other policy work - such as the development of rural land management plans, urban design studies, leasing policy and local area studies - will be coordinated by the Planning and Land Management Division, although the work may be done by the responsible business units elsewhere in the ACT Public Service.

The land supply group will be responsible for forecasting housing demand, delivering land to meet Canberra's growth, and planning for its infrastructure. Area coordination will be responsible for assessing development, design and siting, building and lease variation applications. A new, customer-focused single application assessment process will be central to this new role. The customer services group will operate over-the-counter advisory services and will support the operation of local area planning advisory committees.

The importance of lease enforcement to the integrity of planning and land management in the ACT cannot be overemphasised. Compliance action is, and has been, taken over a number of years by successive administrations with mixed results. It would be erroneous to conclude that there has been no enforcement policy in place. However, the establishment of a unit specifically dedicated to compliance, as part of a consolidated regulatory services group, will assist in the development of a more comprehensive and systematic approach to enforcement. Mr Speaker, the Government

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