Page 5942 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Mr Coe interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Le Couteur, one moment, thank you. Mr Coe, you are now warned. I could not even hear Ms Le Couteur’s question over you. Ms Le Couteur, could you start the question again, thank you.
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what criteria are used to determine if a master plan is needed in an area? Would it be things like a territory plan variation? Would it be the number of DAs or the number of complaints to DAs—or anything else you may wish to suggest?
MR BARR: That is possibly the most open-ended question in the Assembly this year. In relation to the point I was concluding on earlier, there are many things that all of the group and local centres have in common, and there are some issues that we need to consider across all centres—for example, height limits, parking ratios and the question of mixed use development as to whether it is appropriate to have residential,
commercial and retail all within the one precinct. I think we need to be considering those issues. Certainly that will be a feature of the discussion paper I will bring forward shortly.
We need to address the huge demand for housing in areas close to services, and a logical place to look is, of course, in our group centres. That will also link into our transport planning and the work that has been undertaken through the transport for Canberra initiatives. It is critical that we do not just take an ad hoc approach to this. The sorts of issues that are common across group centres will be considered in this discussion paper. In addition, as I have identified, areas where we know there are going to be increased demands on infrastructure are those that are the highest priority for master planning work.
MR HANSON: A supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Minister, last night why did you, along with the Greens, reject calls for a master plan of Weston Creek when you adjourned a motion in the Assembly calling for that, after claiming in June that you must wait for a list of all the master plans coming forward, only two weeks later to announce a master plan for Hawker?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, this is not a speech.
MR BARR: I am not entirely sure what Mr Hanson’s question was. It just seemed to be a statement. Let me deal with the first part. No, the government did not reject a master plan for Weston. We indicated that we had an established motion from the Assembly. As Mr Smyth is so fond of saying, the will of the Assembly was clear in relation to the process we would follow for announcing future master plans. You sought, Mr Hanson, to queue-jump that process. That motion was passed by the Assembly. It was the will of the Assembly. Now we have a Hansonite queue jumper.
As I have indicated, we will respond to the Assembly motion. We have a series of master plans already in place. There is no further capacity, without a further budget
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video