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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2569 ..

government has delivered, and the legislation will now commence on 1 September this year.

The government has improved information packages on planning matters and development assessments. We have streamlined the high-quality, sustainable design policy introduced by the former Liberal government and we have introduced a revised series of guidance publications which will replace the former HQSD material.

The new approach is considerably more user friendly, easier to understand and simpler and makes a series of sensible refinements to the pre-application phase of the development application—what we are now more accurately describing as the design phase. In fact, there are now just three phases—design, assessment and review—something which is much easier for people to understand and work within. The improved processes will complement the processes that architects and designers naturally go through in working up a development application.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that this government is the first since self-government to set a new strategic direction for the future growth and development of our city. The strategic planning provides more certainty and guidance for both industry and the community.

The central area strategy is also an important initiative which this government has committed to to ensure that Civic becomes a key area of Canberra. Master plans for City west and the Woden town centre, together with the sustainable transport plan, master and neighbourhood plans, have provided the framework for future urban development and redevelopment.

The spatial plan, perhaps more than anything else, makes nonsense of Mrs Dunne’s talk of an increasing lack of confidence of the community in the planning process. The release of the plan was the culmination of the community working together for nearly two years to develop a key strategic planning document that would guide the development of Canberra for the next 30 years. It seems that in some respects you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t; you either consult too much or you do not consult enough. That seemed to be the assertion that Mrs Dunne was making this evening.

The government has committed to planning reform. The review was identified as a priority in the most recent Stanhope budget. In the budget the government committed additional funding of a quarter of a million dollars in 2004-05 and $100,000 in 2005-06 to ensure that the planning system delivers responsible decisions within a simpler framework.

In conducting the review, we are taking account of the work that has been undertaken elsewhere in Australia to achieve better, more timely and more user friendly planning results. This includes the work of the development assessment forum and its leading-practice model for development assessment which has a particular role to play in our consideration of a single, integrated development task. This is not to suggest, however, that the ACT will simply adopt the package as is.

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