Page 4709 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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In the wake of a series of high-level industry roundtables, significant reforms have been introduced to planning and procurement processes. In the area of procurement, quotation and tender thresholds have been raised and changes to pre-qualification rules have been made. A goods and services procurement forecast is now published on the Procurement Solutions website and updated weekly. E-tendering has been introduced for some low-value, low-risk procurements, and businesses may now quote online.
In the area of planning, thousands of development applications have been assessed by the independent statutory decision maker—at arm’s length from politics, as they ought to be. Within this independent framework, the flexibility of the territory’s planning system has allowed the government to take decisive action over the past 12 months to support jobs and growth.
In response to the global financial crisis and within weeks of forming government, Labor announced ACTPLAn, a partnership between the government and industry, in December last year. Through ACTPLAn, the Planning and Land Authority has worked with industry and community groups to cut planning red tape and support local employment through the financial crisis.
In response to the federal government’s building the education revolution program, the government introduced special regulations to ensure that all ACT schools could start building quickly with commonwealth provided funds.
Throughout, the government’s focus on planning for climate change has not diminished. A highlight has been ACTPLA’s sustainable futures program, a critical exercise in listening to the community and gathering the best evidence and ideas to ensure that our planning policies support our sustainability policies and our climate change action plan, weathering the change. A discussion paper on that program will be released by the minister in the next few weeks.
Labor wants its policies to be based on evidence, not intuition or ignorant supposition. We have engaged the microbusiness community through the first-ever forum dedicated to their particular interests. At the other end of town the government has partnered with the ANU on a climate change institute and partnered with NICTA and industry on an e-government cluster.
A former commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Mr John Martin, was engaged to review the territory’s supermarket competition policy. His recommendations, accepted by the government, will be implemented before the end of the year and will encourage new players and revive the fortunes of local and group centres.
Early and enhanced community consultation on the 2010-11 budget has begun, including opportunities for online submissions from members of the public, community groups and industry organisations.
The result of all of this focused work has been a rebound in business confidence and a city that, despite the global uncertainty of the past year, is actually and audibly humming.
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