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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4168 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

I have no problems in principle with the statement as a document that sets out the broad planning intentions of the government, and is then able to provide indications to the authority about the intentions of the government for the planning system. However, the original form of the statement of planning intent did raise alarm bells because of uncertainty about the extent of its powers, how it would be used and what weight it actually had.

The series of government amendments 5, 6, 8 and 9 ensures that the statement of planning intent is not inconsistent with the Territory Plan, and goes to changing the bill to allow the new authority to take into consideration the statement of planning intent without formally being bound by it. I believe that this change increases the independence of the authority and helps prevent the statement being used as a tool for the control of the authority by government, which is one of the fears that we had with the original legislation.

I am happy to support these amendments discussing the statement of planning intent, as I believe they more clearly spell out the role of the statement and help protect the independence of the authority, one of the key issues that were raised again and again through the debate on this piece of legislation.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.56): I do not want to pre-empt discussion on the following clauses, which deal primarily with the statement of planning intent, but to respond very briefly to comments that Ms Dundas made.

The government has spelt out clearly what the purpose is of the statement of planning intent. It is the opportunity for the government of the day, particularly a newly elected government, which may have been elected on a sweeping platform of change, a change of direction, or a change of policy framework on planning, to communicate formally to the authority its policy intentions and objectives. Really, we as a government were seeking to draw the distinction between a specific direction that would be given on a particular matter or issue, and the capacity to talk more holistically about the policy objectives, frameworks and activities that the government of the day wanted to implement in planning.

The government has acknowledged the concerns raised by other members about the potential capacity of the statement of planning intent to override the Territory Plan and other statutory planning activities. That was never the intention of the statement of planning intent, and the government is happy to further clarify those matters in the amendments which will be outlined and discussed subsequently.

The statement of planning intent is the opportunity for the government to communicate its broad directions to the authority and have the authority take those into account without being bound by them. This amendment says that, when it comes to the authority exercising its functions, that must not be done solely in regard to issues about sustainability, but also about other matters such as, say, housing affordability, or other such things that are raised in the statement of planning intent.

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