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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3483 ..

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The relevance of PALM as an integrated organisation has underscored the Government's response to the Stein Report. In its response, we acknowledged the need for an alternative system to deliver land and planning services. However, the statutory board models proposed by Stein were considered to work against an integrated and client-focussed system.

To balance this, the Government agreed to create a strong, independent statutory decision-maker as arbiter on land and planning matters. We have appointed a Commissioner for Land and Planning and the value of his office in managing quite difficult decisions is proven.

Government policy can be developed but will not move forward without strong operational policies and procedures.

This has been fully recognised at PALM and this report details the operational policy and process improvements. Chief among these are:

. the new timeframes for decision-making

. ongoing regulatory reform; and

. more effective public notification arrangements.

A highlight is, what I describe as, the monumental improvements that have been made to the response times on Development Applications.

Since the new Regulations became effective on June 24, PALM must deliver a decision on a Development Application in 30 working days, or 45 working days if there are objections. Let me remind the Assembly that, in 1995-96, the statutory time was 20 weeks.

That is one example of the initiatives this Government has taken to provide a more responsive, cost-effective planning and land management function.

Consultation...our consultative requirements and processes is another area of significant improvement.

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