Page 1789 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 August 2007
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Detail stage
Clause 1 agreed to.
Clause 2.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.00): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name and table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments [see schedule 2 at page 1811]. This amendment substitutes a new commencement clause in the bill and specifies that the bill is to commence on 31 March 2008 or when the new territory plan commences or when notified by the minister, whichever is the latest date. The new territory plan commences in accordance with clause 423 (3) of the bill.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (8.01): We will be supporting this amendment. It has been a good thing that this slows down the commencement. At the same time, it begs the question why we are rushing the legislation through, so to speak, with 160-plus amendments, given that it is not going to be starting until at least the end of March and possibly some time later. That has never been made clear to the opposition. Perhaps the minister could outline what the rush is to get it through this week. Of course, we are cooperating with that, but it seems a bit curious—given we are going to have such a long lead-in to the commencement of the this act—as to why there is a sudden rush to push through 160 government amendments, plus opposition amendments, plus crossbench amendments to pass this legislation. Perhaps the minister might be able to answer that question for us.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 3 to 5, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 6.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (8.02): I will be opposing this clause. I give credit to the people responsible for this bill—Simon Corbell clearly being a big part of that—for building into the object of the act a commitment to considering the long-term environmental implications of development and planning decisions. I am not sure how much other ACT legislation articulates the issues of intergenerational equity and the precautionary principle. In this light, I would like to see the government revisit its fairly recent reconfirmed commitment to sustainability legislation to ensure that this thinking informs the objects of all government agencies.
However, the problem I have with this clause of the bill is that there appears to be no formal consideration of our society and our culture. One of the big sources of community tension around planning issues are divergent social and cultural expectations. While social aspirations of the people of the ACT are referred to in this clause, what they might be or how they might be discerned is not addressed. There are
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