Page 3507 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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MR SPEAKER: Ms Le Couteur, a supplementary?
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, given, as you said, the importance of these two variations, and given, as I will say, the difficulty in understanding them, why has ACTLA not held any public meetings as part of the consultation process?
MR BARR: That is just fundamentally not an accurate statement. In fact, the planning authority has held a number of workshops, meetings, and is more than happy to attend a range of events that are organised, not necessarily entirely by the planning authority but in conjunction with community councils. I know there has been a workshop and a roundtable with the community councils. I know, for example, that the Woden Valley Community Council organised its own forum. I know a number of other organisations have, as part of their own working through of these issues, organised forums or opportunities for their own members or for the broader public to be involved.
As I said, this is just one stage in the process. There are further opportunities. I am sure the planning committee will hold public hearings, for example, on this matter. So this will not be resolved this calendar year. It will go well into 2011. But, in the context of having this community conversation and resolving this issue, I do note that in the context of the parliamentary agreement and in the context of many of the issues that you raise, Ms Le Couteur, there is an urgent need to move ahead with this work. And there is, again, a trade-off with how much time you can spend in the consultation phase, noting that this is not a new issue; this is something that was worked through in some detail all through last year in the sustainable futures program.
So it is not as if we are addressing these issues for the first time in calendar year 2010. This has been an ongoing process, dating back to the work of Mr Corbell in this portfolio, way back at the beginning of this decade. So we have been having this community conversation in varying forms really since this government were elected, and this is just a further step in that community conversation and we will continue to engage with the community in the months and years ahead on these important matters.
MS HUNTER: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Thanks, Mr Speaker. How will the government ensure that time lines for estate approvals are maintained, given that both TAMS and ACTPLA will be approving bodies?
MR BARR: Having government agencies work together is a very key element in terms of the government’s own administrative response to this challenging agenda. We recognise the importance of ensuring that there is sufficient supply of new housing. We recognise the importance of having a balance in new housing product between urban infill and new greenfields estates.
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