Page 3094 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
some ways, downgrading the role of the chief planner, and that is unfortunate. I do not think that will actually lead to better outcomes. Planning is about a lot of things; environmental issues are one aspect of planning. It seems that it is now going to become primarily an environmental focus, which is only one, albeit a very important, aspect of the planning process. I put on record our concerns about that particular direction that has come out of the Hawke review.
The Hawke review did characterise ACTPLA and the planning arrangements very poorly. In fact, it said that the current arrangements in relation to land and planning are at best hindering, if not actively obstructing and frustrating, achievement of the government’s priorities. This is the minister who put that in place. Minister Corbell actually put these arrangements in place. He set up the LDA and ACTPLA, and now that is being dismantled. There is going to be real tension there, with the man who put the arrangements in place but who is now being told they have to be dismantled, and as to how that will actually work.
I am not sure that the government has got that right and I do really express concerns about where this will go. I think that having as chief planner someone who does not having planning qualifications is a mistake. I do not think that is a sensible way forward for our planning system.
I raise something that follows on from that. I think the government is very much on notice now that we cannot see any more of these massive cost blow-outs. ACTPLA was of course involved with one of those—that is, the north Weston pond project. This is another $20-odd million that the community has lost—$20-odd million that could have been spent on so many important community projects and which has been lost because of poor planning and poor risk assessment.
We have spoken a little bit about this Auditor-General’s report but it is one of the more damning reports. It says:
ACT Government agencies did not effectively manage the North Weston Pond project to ensure the project was completed for the budgeted cost within the planned timeframe. The project has required significant redesign to address escalating costs due to risks that were known at the earliest stages of the project.
I think it is worth reflecting on the fact that these risks were known and they were not properly addressed; they were not properly dealt with. This kind of poor risk management leads to large cost blow-outs. So the government is on notice. It has had warning after warning after warning from the Auditor-General. The minister now needs to really demonstrate—and I think it would be worth having a significant ministerial statement from Mr Corbell at some point. He should come in and say, “This is what we’ve learnt about projects.”
It is not just the north Weston pond project. The ponds in Lyneham project has blown out as well. And there are so many other projects. We have seen the ESA, the latest with the fire shed and the ESA headquarters. I think it would be worth the planning minister, and other ministers but particularly in this case the planning minister, coming out with a ministerial statement that actually said what is going to be done
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video