Page 3094 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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Questions without notice
Planning—Federal Golf Club
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Planning and Land Management and relates to residential development at golf clubs. Federal golf course community panel members have been told that no Territory Plan variation will be required to enable over 100 retirement homes to be built on the course, despite it being zoned for a golf course—zoned as recreational. Minister, can you confirm whether or not a Territory Plan variation is required to turn part of the course into a retirement village?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. Yes, I can confirm that a TPV would be necessary for this process. There are a number of steps for the Federal Golf Club should they wish to proceed after the community panels. They would need to apply for deconcessionalisation of the lease. This involves a social impact statement. If the deconcessionalisation is approved, a fee would be incurred as well. They would then request a National Capital Plan amendment for parts of the site to be returned to Canberra Nature Park and request a Territory Plan variation. That includes rezoning, of course, and there is a lengthy statutory process with that. So there would be quite a deal of community consultation after these community panels should they wish to proceed.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, will you commit to not progressing the Territory Plan variation if the federal golf course community panel’s community representatives reject the proposal?
MR GENTLEMAN: The process is quite clear cut. As I have mentioned, there are a number of steps involved. I do not think it would be wise for the minister to intervene in those steps. So we will look to see the outcomes of these community consultations through the panel and then proceed from there.
MS CODY: Minister, can you outline the community panel process please?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Cody for her question. We have started these community panels in a number of areas where a TPV was sought or a change was sought. It is a really good way of involving the community in the outcomes for decision-making.
During the community panels we receive quite a bit of information from proponents—from stakeholders—as we saw, for example, at the Woden roundtable community panel that was hosted by Mr Steel and Ms Cody. There was a very good outcome there and a lot of information was provided for decision-makers to look through and, therefore, be more educated in their decision-making process.
Government—tourism policy
MS CHEYNE: Chief Minister, how is the territory performing against its 2020 tourism targets?
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