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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2572 ..

The staff are staff of the authority and they are responsible to the chief planning executive; they do not report to the minister. It is the chief planning executive’s responsibility, knowing that this is a statutory appointment, to provide the minister with advice on issues such as variations to the territory plan as well as having direct opportunity to administer the information aspects of the Planning and Land Act.

In conclusion I’d like to take this opportunity to remind members of a conversation that Mrs Dunne had with me during the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment’s hearing on 22 September 2002 when she was the chair of that committee. The discussion was on the independent status of the authority. I was explaining the independent functions of the authority and those of which the government had carriage. I explained that the difference was that the government set the policy framework for the authority and it made certain decisions and that the authority then made certain decisions independently from the government; the decisions which the authority had independence on were in relation to the implementation of planning law; and in that respect it was no different from other statutory bodies such as the Racing and Gaming Commission.

Mrs Dunne herself stated:

I think I’ve actually used the example of the Gaming and Racing Commission in that, in a sense, it does not advise the government … and that from my experience the ministerial relationship with planning and land management is very much of a minister-public service arrangement where planning and land management advises the minister for the most part, whereas the relationship between the Gambling and Racing Commission and the minister is not that relationship.

At that stage Mrs Dunne fully understood that the planning authority was a hybrid authority and that its roles and its reporting responsibilities to the minister and the executive were different from those in relation to its independent, decision-making powers. The government agrees. It does not support the motion as outlined by Mrs Dunne. I move the amendment in my name to address our concerns. I move:

Omit all words after “Authority” first occurring, substitute:

“(2) calls on the ACT Government to ensure that the ACT Planning and Land Authority, in that part of its function where it has an independent decision making capacity, is available at the discretion of its Chief Planning Executive, to brief Members on those planning matters that are already publicly available, subject to the integrity and impartiality of the process not being interfered with and due recognition of the privileges that the Authority needs to observe in conducting its business.”.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister’s time has expired.

MR CORNWELL (8.56): You just do not get it, do you? We have listened tonight to a great deal of talk about what is happening and what is not happening. We are addressing, I suppose, Mr Speaker, something that is probably the biggest investment that anybody will ever make, that is, a home.

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