Page 1925 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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31 March 2008 territory plan. Section 226 (8) of the land act requires the Planning and Land Authority to renotify the alteration in accordance with the earlier notification requirements.
A revised PA was submitted to the Planning and Land Authority with the altered DA. The altered DA and the revised PA have been renotified in accordance with the sections of the act. This renotification was advertised in the Canberra Times on Saturday, 7 June. The renotification proposal is available for comment for 15 working days from the date of the Canberra Times notice, which is the time frame required by the legislation. This closes on 1 July 2008. I can advise the Assembly that all submissions received to date will be considered during the assessment as well as all additional comments received during the renotification period.
The preliminary assessment will be evaluated by the Planning and Land Authority according to the requirements of the legislation, taking into consideration the comments from other ACT government agencies, including the ACT Environment Protection Authority, ACT Health and submissions from the ACT community. The health minister has indicated that she has commissioned a health impact assessment for the proposal. This will also inform the evaluation of the preliminary assessment.
The subject of the potential environmental impacts offered by the PA will then be provided by ACTPLA to the environment minister, who will make a decision as to whether to direct a higher level of environmental assessment. That is an important point. I hope Dr Foskey, particularly, is paying attention.
Once the Planning and Land Authority has assessed the preliminary assessment, it then makes a recommendation to the environment minister. It is at that point that a decision is made—and a decision can be made at a ministerial level—as to whether a higher level of environmental assessment is required. To do so before that would be in breach of the act. For those opposite and Dr Foskey to be calling for that to occur before the planning authority has made that assessment would be asking us to breach the act. I do not think that those opposite and Dr Foskey would in any other circumstance seriously ask a government minister to breach the act.
The result of the PA process will inform the authority’s assessment of the development application. The development application will be assessed against the requirements of the land act, the general principles and policies of the territory plan, the broadacre land-use policies and other relevant policies and guidelines. The assessment of the DA will also include a careful consideration of the submissions from other ACT government agencies and the range of issues raised by the community. The development application must be determined by 26 September 2008.
Obviously, by their stunt today and by the tone of the interjections, the Liberal opposition do not agree with this process and believe themselves to be above it. However, one could be forgiven for being confused at their position. The Leader of the Opposition has now fessed up to the fact that he was briefed on this project some eight months ago. If he does think it is such a heinous project, which will cause pollution and the loss of amenity to his fellow residents and indeed to himself, why did he not say so in October last year? Could it be because he thought it was a project with enormous potential to broaden the territory’s economic base? The great
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