Page 664 - Week 02 - Thursday, 6 March 2008
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DR FOSKEY: I do not agree that what we have here has totally achieved this intention, but pursuing this aim has been able to neuter a lot of the potential pre-election criticism of the reform process.
One consequence of this policy-free approach has been to frustrate the community groups and individuals who lodged submissions on the proposed changes, who were then told that their submissions were not relevant because they addressed changes which had not been finalised. A lot of the changes that have been introduced in the past year or so are now being characterised as policy neutral.
I have other issues but I am concerned I am now going to run out of time. In the process of moving from the draft to the final plan, a lot of feedback came in on the draft plan. Changes were made, but the final plan—while it was circulated to members today, and it is no doubt available on the web—was not made specifically available to people who commented on the draft. And it is a hefty document. One of the basic courtesies of consultation is to report back to people, giving them feedback.
Time will tell whether the changes are so significant that a new round of consultation is needed, but at the very least advice to contributors as to where they can see the final plan prior to its consideration here in the Assembly and its adoption here in the Assembly should be built into the process. It is just one of the steps in proper consultations: you take it back and tell people what has happened to their suggestions; otherwise, they lose faith in the process. And I can tell you that there is faith lost in the process.
I go to the changes to zoning of school properties. Again, people were consulted on the school closures, but they were not consulted on the zoning changes.
Mr Barr: Nonsense.
DR FOSKEY: That is not policy neutral. In his reply, Mr Barr can argue against everything that he has been interjecting about. I look forward to hearing my concerns allayed.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (5.44): I am very pleased to speak on this motion this evening, and I want to start by placing on the record my acknowledgement of and thanks for the work of all of the staff of the ACT Planning and Land Authority who have been intimately involved in this process for a very considerable period of time.
This is without a doubt the most significant reform and rewrite of the territory plan since self-government, and it is the end step of a reform process that commenced back in 2001. The Labor government can proudly say that from 2001 we have fundamentally reworked planning and development in the territory, both in terms of its governance and in terms of the outcomes we are seeking to put in place.
From the establishment of the Planning and Land Authority and the Land Development Agency, the creation of the position of Chief Planner through to the new
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