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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3482 ..

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What we now have is an organisation with a shared vision...a new ethos.

And while much energy went in to these structural changes, 1996-97 was very much one of "business as usual" for PALM.

In this case "Business as usual" meant not merely maintaining its services to customers, but improving on them. After all, the decision to establish Planning and Land Management was very much driven by the need to make the ACT's planning and land management functions more customer focused.

And in the case of PALM, the customers are many and varied. Valuers and the legal profession; builders and contractors; architects and plumbers; students and real estate agents, but most importantly, PALM's services concern each and every Canberra citizen. A number of PALM's services benefit also people who live in the Canberra Region.

PALM is a unique organisation among Australian government agencies. It blends the strategic and operational functions of land and planning, with both a city and Territory focus. As Assembly Members will see from the report I am tabling today, 1996-97 has been a year of significant milestones.

I now highlight some key aspects of this report.

There was major change to the Land (Planning and Environment) Act and other pieces of legislation, particularly in response to the Stein Report. The recent introduction of new Regulations means these changes are now all in place. The impact of change will be monitored and evaluated during 1997-98.

There is more legislative change to follow. PALM has already undertaken extensive work on all aspects of unit titles legislation. A Unit Titles Amendment Act Exposure Draft is scheduled for release in late 1997. Similarly, public discussion papers for Parts 3 (Heritage) and 4 (Environmental Assessments) of the Land Act will be released this financial year.

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