Page 4994 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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strategy were what was going to determine the priority for master plans. If that is the case, I do not think that has been adequately conveyed to the Canberra public. I do not think that the people of Calwell would realise, “Oh, if we want a master plan we need to put a comment in on the draft planning strategy.”
We have a general problem with consultation on planning in Canberra. You can see it in the Assembly—we keep on dealing with spot fires, where people get significantly upset about an issue and there is a call upon the Assembly to intervene in the nitty-gritty of planning. The Assembly has many virtues, but we are not really brilliant on doing nitty-gritty town planning. That is not our role. Our role is—
Mr Corbell: Have you seen your motion today?
MS LE COUTEUR: Yes, I have, and I have seen Ms Bresnan’s motion, Mr Corbell.
Mr Corbell: No, no, your motion. Your motion on QIC.
MS LE COUTEUR: I will talk on the QIC motion in a few hours, and I will talk on this motion now. I consistently say that the Assembly is not the best place to do nitty-gritty town planning. Sometimes the government leaves issues of such public importance that the Assembly finds itself dealing with issues which should not be debated at this level. That is really the second point of Ms Bresnan motion—addressing the community concerns in Calwell on all of these issues. It is the role of this Assembly to point out community concerns, but it is not really our role to say exactly how they are going to be solved, where the signs should be and where the paths should be.
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot!
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is very distracting when members conduct conversations while you are trying to speak. It is important that the government takes on board the fact that these are general issues that TAMS should deal with. I am pleased to hear Mr Corbell say that TAMS in fact is going to deal with these, and I think it is a good thing that they will come higher up on the priorities than they otherwise would have been.
Before finishing I would like to make a general comment about planning and the need for better processes. Part of the Greens’ agreement with the Labor Party was for better neighbourhood planning. This has not happened. As a result of a motion last year about master planning we now have at least a program for the first half dozen master plans. But what we are seeing, as I said, is that planning is important to the ACT people and real consultation on it is important. I would like to emphasise the words “real consultation”. I have had a number of recent emails from constituents basically saying they are sick and tired of putting a lot of time into being consulted about things and then finding that what they said made absolutely no difference.
The Greens would like to see real consultation in planning. Real consultation is consultation where what people say has the potential to make a difference. We agree
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