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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3679 ..
MR CORBELL (continuing):
a neighbourhood plan for each suburb. That is yet another Labor policy already available out there in the electorate for people to consider.
We believe that consultation with the owner or owners of local centres is required, along with neighbourhood residents and other community and business stakeholders, in the development of master plans for local centres. We also believe, Mr Speaker, that, where appropriate, the costs of such master plan development should be met by the development proponent. The owner or owners of a local centre should be prepared to meet the costs of the independent planning agency preparing the master plan for the redevelopment of local centres.
Ms Tucker, in paragraph (2) of her motion, calls on the government to delay the release of the land. She does so predominantly for the purpose of reviewing the multi-unit site design and siting controls. Labor will support the motion not only because it allows for that loophole in relation to multi-unit design and siting to be addressed, but also because we believe that if you are going to be releasing land contiguous to local group centres it should be done in a coordinated manner as part of the broader master plan for the whole centre rather than in a piecemeal manner.
Mr Speaker, these are the fundamental issues that Labor sees in this motion. These are the reasons why we believe this motion should be supported today.
I will add one other point before concluding. We have not seen this government address one issue in relation to residential development at group centres, which is the provision of residential accommodation in an affordable manner. We need to encourage a broader range of dwelling types which meet the diverse needs of a neighbourhood population, and we need to make sure that a proportion of that accommodation is affordable.
There has been in the past a series of incentives to encourage local centre redevelopment through remission of change of use charge, along with the remission of other taxes and charges. Labor believes that if this approach is to be continued in the future there should be a requirement that, as part of the guidelines for the assessment of development proposals for local centres, there should be a condition that guidelines on the provision of affordable housing options in local centres are met as part of the remission of such taxes and charges.
It is a good idea to have a proportion of residential development in local centres, particularly those that are needing revitalisation, but it is just as important to make sure that people on lower incomes have an opportunity to live close to places where there are services, facilities, shops and other activities that allow them to continue to contribute in the community and to have fair access to those services.
Mr Speaker, the Labor Party will be supporting this motion today because it does set out, broadly, objectives that the Labor Party has already signalled need to be addressed, and which we announced a policy on about three months ago.
MR STEFANIAK
(Minister for Education and Attorney-General) (8.28): I do not know whether Mr Corbell was in this Assembly when we first grappled with the very real problem of declining patronage of local centres; not the group centres so much, but the local suburban shopping centres. The then government, the Carnell government, in about
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