Page 1986 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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It was, once upon a time, applied to core funding for the ACT Multicultural Council, which delivered an absolutely pathetic program for a number of years. We had to withdraw those funds and then apply to projects out there in the multicultural sector to actually deliver programs that the multicultural sector wanted. It is my intention over time to return those funds to the community without having the involvement of the government other than to set what outcomes we would like to see—which are driven by the multicultural strategy.
But when it comes to specific parts of it I do not want anybody to consider that the $75,000 or thereabouts is to be considered as ongoing core funding for any activity at all at this point in time—not at this particular point in time. If there is a point in the future where that is a viable exercise—we will see how the maturity of the change process in the multicultural community emerges; it has been through a very significant change process over the last four years. I would suspect off the top of my head that it is about 80 per cent of the way through the continuum. It is a fairly complex exercise.
I am quite happy to offer Ms Bresnan and her office a detailed briefing on this particular matter as and when the diary is free.
ACT Planning and Land Authority—funding
MR DOSZPOT: My question is to the Treasurer and relates to funding arrangements for ACTPLA. Treasurer, in the next financial year ACTPLA will receive one-off funding of $1.7 million and extra staff to increase productivity. Yet after this one-off funding, they will then be forced to find hundreds of thousands in efficiency dividends. If ACTPLA in its current form have not been able to provide adequate service to the development of Canberra prior to the funding cuts, how will they provide the services after funding cuts?
MR BARR: Mr Speaker, as I have responsibility for the Planning and Land Authority, I am happy to take this question. It is within my portfolio. I thank Mr Doszpot for the question. The government has made a series of funding commitments for the Planning and Land Authority in this year’s budget. I would draw Mr Doszpot’s attention to the creation of a fourth branch, business services development assessment, separating those two elements so as to provide enhanced services to users of the Planning and Land Authority, be they industry or Canberra householders.
Those changes came about as the result of a considered review of service delivery within the Planning and Land Authority and do provide for more inspectors, particularly in the plumbing and electrical inspectorate and a much faster turnaround on the issuing of things like certificates of occupancy, which were matters that were raised with government through the implementation the ACT plan, through our industry monitoring group and through our industry roundtables.
The additional funding that we have provided on a one-off basis to the Planning and Land Authority was in recognition of the changes to the new planning system and the
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