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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4065 ..

(11) Incorporation of solar access requirements in planning and design processes to ensure that passive solar residents are not overshadowed by neighbouring dwellings.

I will not have time to finish all of our 19 points. I will conclude by saying that I think this action plan for Canberra’s built environment is something that should be picked up by the government of the next Assembly. We are lagging behind other world cities and behind better performing Australian states in this regard.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (4.43): Members would recall that this same matter was raised by Mrs Dunne towards the end of last year. At that time I outlined why, as part of the government’s pre-election commitments, it identified planning for the ACT as one of its top priorities, as well as the significant reform that it has undertaken to date and intends to continue, if given the chance to be returned to government.

This government has, I would argue, been both visionary and innovative in its approach to reforming the planning and development system—more so than any of its predecessors since self-government. The planning system was, it is fair to say, completely neglected by our predecessors—and in some instances it could be argued that it was abused. On the other hand, I am pleased to say that the government has introduced a raft of leading changes to the administration of the system, including the establishment of the ACT Planning and Land Authority, which has the capacity to make many of its decisions at arm’s length from the political process.

The fact that many planning decisions come under scrutiny from members of the public, media and indeed this place, does not in any way reflect poorly on the system; in fact, the opposite is the case. As we all know, decisions will sometimes be made where someone is disaffected but, in reality, we only get to see and hear about the small fraction of decisions being made on a daily basis.

Planning systems have evolved over the last 10 to 15 years from essentially dealing with managing the separation of incompatible land uses to dealing with a much more diverse and complex range of issues. These include land use practice, European and Aboriginal heritage, environmental considerations, landscape, transport, affordability, natural hazard mitigation, significant trees, energy efficiency, noise, urban character, urban design, sustainability issues, and water management.

The point I am making is that this highlights a broad range of issues that planning systems are now struggling to come to grips with. It is important that we continue to refine and reform our systems to try to engage this range of issues in an integrated way. The government’s arrangements for planning in the ACT in the past have been subject to political interference and undue influence, reducing public confidence in the process and impinging on the appropriateness of some planning outcomes. There has been a focus on regulations and statutes at the cost of sound forward planning and policy development and, in some circumstances, whilst there has been an admirable desire to achieve consensus planning, this has resulted in unacceptable delays in delivery of outcomes and raised unrealistic expectations.

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