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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4059 ..

whether it is okay. In the past three years we have seen a paradigm shift. I am very glad Mrs Dunne put this MPI on the notice paper about the state of planning in the ACT. I think it is a wonderful opportunity for those opposite to get up and congratulate Mr Corbell on moving things forward at such a pace. This place has boomed. It has gone from strength to strength. We have seen the government take over the development of land out there and the revenue flows to the pockets of the taxpayers, not into the coffers of others.

Mrs Dunne: But they can’t afford to buy land to build their houses!

MR HARGREAVES: I think sometimes there is a bit of “sour grapes” here because they did not think of it themselves. We have the independence of the LDA, and ACTPLA is considerably more independent than it was before. We do not have rampant use of call-in powers. It is this minister who brings along the explanations to it. It is this minister who has turned planning upside down in this town. It is just as well he did too because, as I say, it was just a festering sore in the sun before this minister came along.

I think it is wonderful, and I thank Mrs Dunne from the bottom of my heart for giving us the opportunity to extol the virtues of the government and the movement forward. As the planning minister has outlined before, on a number of occasions in this house, this government has been progressively and proactively working towards the establishment of the administrative arrangements for the new planning and development system and providing strategic planning and policy platform for sound decision making.

Before, it was decision making on the run: shoot from the hip and hope like heck it hits the target. It never did. When the Land Act was introduced in 1991 there were over 150 amendments to the bill made on the floor of the Assembly. In conjunction with subsequent amendments these have created an overly complex, and in some respects, unorthodox planning system.

The territory needs to be more competitive in attracting development. It needs a better guide to government strategic investment and social and physical infrastructure. This can only be achieved through the development of a spatial plan and strategic planning policies that the minister has referred to on a number of occasions in this place. Today the politicians, developers, the community and administrators of the system operate under an increasingly cumbersome and inflexible system created by the Assembly, something that this minister has taken on as a personal challenge to fix. I have to say that, to a great degree, he has succeeded and will continue to succeed when he continues on as Minister for Planning for as long as he feels so inclined.

From the outset the government’s reforms have been ambitious and have already seen significant change, not the least of which has been the establishment of the ACT Planning and Land Authority and the Land Development Agency. It is important to understand that underpinning both of these issues is the independence. Mr Corbell has taken the planning regimes of this town largely out of the hands of politicians, who sometimes face the apple on the tree of temptation. But now they do not need to worry about resisting that because it is an independent authority and agency. Having delivered these, the government is committed to integrating its strategic planning across areas of planning, environment, society and economic performance that will deliver clarity, efficiency and a city like no other.

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