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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 254 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

As promised during the election, the government will establish an independent planning and land management authority that will deliver several principles. These will include:

• the best contemporary planning practice;
• integrated solutions to planning issues;
• the primacy of strategic planning, guiding services delivery and development;
• sustainable land use practices, including an integrated land use and transport strategy; and
• strongly incorporating community views into the strategic planning of Canberra.

Mr Speaker, $300,000 has been committed this financial year to the creation of the authority, and the process is already under way. There are, of course, many different models for a statutory planning authority. I am consulting with a wide range of my colleagues in government, the community and urban planning and development experts about the most appropriate models for the ACT. We have the opportunity to develop a contemporary model which embodies best practice in strategic thinking, consultation and communication. This is essential for the future growth and sustainability of our city. I expect to announce further details in relation to an interim authority and to follow that announcement with an outline of specific legislation to create a permanent authority. Drafts of that legislation, as an exposure bill, will be discussed through public consultation strategies in the new year.

This government will protect Canberra as the bush capital and the garden city. This government is listening to the people of Canberra. We will protect the amenity of our suburban neighbourhoods. We have committed $500,000 in this financial year to commence a master planning program through the development of neighbourhood plans. Individual neighbourhood plans developed in consultation with new neighbourhood planning groups will specify where, when and what type of development can occur in the suburb. This process ensures residents' interests and needs are essential to our planning process.

I have approved a three-year program for neighbourhood plans, giving immediate priority to certain suburbs with the greatest pressures and community interest-Braddon, Turner and Deakin. These will be followed by O'Connor and Lyneham in this financial year. For Turner, in particular, I will ensure that key recommendations of the Planning and Urban Services Committee report of August this year are incorporated in the new planning process.

The neighbourhood plan process will include other inner south suburbs and the remaining suburbs of the inner north during 2002-03, and Woden and Weston Creek will be programmed to commence in 2003-04. This timetable is conservative, and I am hopeful that with experience and community cooperation we can accelerate the process. In this financial year $150,000 has been committed to establish neighbourhood planning groups and a community advisory panel to re-examine ACTCode 2 and the draft residential land use policies.

During the election campaign the Labor Party made a very clear commitment about limiting dual and triple occupancy development, and the new Labor government stands by that commitment. Dual and triple occupancies are fundamentally changing the

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