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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (6 September) . . Page.. 2908 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

of Canberra, and we are developing an ACT cultural map on the Internet-access for everybody, so that they can have this knowledge, so they can have their say.

We do work across all of the portfolios, and the classic example is housing for young people, where the minister for youth, the minister for health and the minister for planning got together and said, "How do we address the needs of young people and make sure that we provide appropriate housing?" We work together. With the Attorney-General I will be releasing the crime prevention and urban design manual.

The point on which I will close is that there is the DAF process-the development assessment forum-which we are working to harmonise across the nation, so that people know, wherever they go, that we all work in a similar manner, with local conditions taken into account. We will also make sure that we do provide some level of certainty to the industry, which is important, so that it can get on with its work.

It is interesting, because the Carr government in New South Wales is taking a similar approach. The planning minister there is Andrew Refshauge. The planning ministers, who have not met for some five years, met in May, I think it was, and are meeting again in November. Two issues are on the agenda. First is quality design and sustainability. The second item is regional planning issues. We can even work with the New South Wales Labor government. It just seems that the ACT Labor Party is out of touch with everyone.

We have done a great deal of work. There is significant improvement in terms of servicing all sectors of the community, as seen in PALM's annual customer survey, and in feedback forms collected by the customer service unit. We have done surveys of the specific units to find out what they are doing, and have received informal feedback, through the development liaison service, to make sure that we are getting it right.

As I have said before, we have had a number of seminars this year to make sure the public has its say. I think PALM is meeting the expectations placed on it by the community. It does do some customer surveys to determine the satisfaction levels, and the levels are going up and up. The staff are doing a good job, because we are giving them the tools to do their job effectively.

Some quotes from some of the surveys include comments such as: "The service we received during a recent dual occupancy submission was excellent, thank you." Then there was: "I found the service with PALM extremely courteous, diligent and helpful at all times." Another one was: "My DA experience was very positive. Good job, PALM." So, to the staff, congratulations. They have embraced the changes to make sure they deliver, and they have embraced them very, very well. They are to be congratulated as well.

We have a vision for the future of a sustainable city, a city that has high-quality design. We have gone outside the envelope-not just outside into the rest of Australia, but outside to the world-to ask others to mentor us, to give us commentary on where we are going, and to make sure that we are getting it right.

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