Page 1471 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 7 May 2008
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being a surrogate for bringing the views of the community into this overall approval process. It is, after all, what we were elected to do. This bill achieves that balance.
Let me give an overview of the bill. The bill contains a preamble; this is seen as being essential to establish some of the principles on which the bill is based. The explanatory memorandum states:
The Bill is intended to reinforce the overall planning outcomes that are sought for the Territory. Within this overall planning framework, however, this Bill recognises that, in exceptional circumstances, the current planning regime for some projects may have to be modified.
The focus of this Bill is on a very small number of projects that are considered to be critically important for the future of the Territory, and for which exceptional circumstances will apply during the planning stages of these projects. These circumstances relate to the location of a project and will arise where:
• a site for a project has been identified;
• considerable work—
and genuine work—
has been undertaken to evaluate the suitability of that site for the project;
• considerable work also has been completed on evaluating particular factors applying to that site to make it suitable for the project;
• at a very late stage in the assessment process, it has been determined that the current site is unsuitable; and
• an alternative site has been identified and, to ensure that the momentum of the project is not lost, it will be possible to carry over—
only where it is certified—
relevant parts of the assessment and evaluation processes to the new site.
In these—
and only these—
exceptional circumstances, it will be possible for the ACT Government to expedite all the assessment and evaluation processes for the second site. In implementing this approach, there will be a number of checks and balances to ensure that due process is followed.
In particular, it will be essential to establish that “any proposal to change a site for a project is genuine and is not an attempt to circumvent the Territory’s planning processes or any other provisions”.
I go to some notes on the key clauses. The explanatory memorandum states:
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