Page 1189 - Week 03 - Thursday, 31 March 2011
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supply or, indeed, of the department. In the context of planning and the Financial Management Act—the two issues you raise—similarly, Ms Le Couteur, we have not formally accepted recommendations in relation to changes that would be required. That is the next step.
I would be hopeful, Ms Le Couteur, that we could achieve within this place consensus on change to implement the Hawke recommendations in relation to a new structure. The arrangement in the broad, Ms Le Couteur, as I am sure you are aware, is that, through the establishment of a directorate of sustainable development, responsibility for policy on planning would in the first instance be vested at an administrative level in the director-general of sustainable development and not with the chief planning executive. But the chief planning executive would remain fully responsible for all statutory decision making. We accept absolutely the importance of not involving politicians or this place in the approval of development applications. That is a view this government has and which we will retain through any amendments which we make.
MS HUNTER: Supplementary, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, if you are to make the changes that you have talked about in your answer, will the government focus on the ACT’s 40 per cent greenhouse gas reduction target as part of those changes?
MR STANHOPE: We will remain focused at all times on the fact that we have set, established and committed to a target, Ms Hunter, and it is a consideration in any decision we make. In the context of changes to administrative arrangements in relation to land supply or planning, certainly our commitment to sustainability we believe will be enhanced through the administrative arrangements recommended to the government by Dr Hawke and focused very much in the establishment of the directorate-general of sustainable development, a directorate-generalship or department or organisation which will have overarching responsibility of the full suite of sustainability issues. It is at the heart of the recommendations that Dr Hawke makes about how to best focus on the government’s priorities, and of course one of our major priorities is sustainability. We have legislated targets, ambitious targets, and we are committed to them.
MR COE: A supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Minister, do you accept that there are considerable vagaries between the responsibilities of the LDA, ACTPLA, LAPS,CMD and parts of TAMS with regard to land supply, whether it be for greenfield developments or for urban infill?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Coe. Dr Hawke in his report has identified a capacity for far greater integration and cooperation across ACT government agencies in decision making on planning and land supply. In his report he identifies those. The
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