Page 3116 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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The Auditor-General has undertaken two investigations specifically around acquisitions. The amendment put forward by the Chief Minister says:
The Minister must make directions relating to the acquisition of land by the authority or agency.
This is one of the most integral sections in the act.
The new authorities have been operating for almost two months. For almost two months there have been no guidelines whatsoever regarding any acquisitions. I hope the planning minister will be able to clarify for us today in his response whether the ACT government has made any acquisitions since 1 July. Given that there are no guidelines in place, because the Greens and Labor voted to take them out, there really are no safeguards in place whatsoever right now with regard to land acquisitions.
The Auditor-General exposed the widespread practice of officials conducting business verbally with little documentation to justify their decisions. The board admitted that they did not see the notifiable instrument, a legislative instrument, as binding. Currently, there is not even a legislative instrument for the board to ignore, let alone for the board to enforce.
Unfortunately, there is an entrenched cultural problem that cannot be fixed by a name change. Simply splitting the organisation is not enough. Therefore, we call on the minister today to clarify when exactly the new determination will be made and whether any acquisitions have been made since 1 July.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.46): I thank members for their input to date. Madam Speaker, thanks for the opportunity to outline some of the ways my planning and land management, urban renewal and environment and heritage portfolios will make the most of their budget allocation this year to help make the ACT a better place. As you will appreciate, the budget allocation covers a multitude of policies, plans and projects. Work ranges from the macro, such as managing Namadgi National Park and planning for our suburbs, to the micro, such as protecting threatened species and approving development for individual houses.
I will use this opportunity to highlight a few of the projects in my portfolio that help our city grow and develop and our environment to be protected and conserved. Our environment division helps protect and improve the integrity of our air, land, water and biodiversity. The division includes the conservation research, natural resource management and water sections, environmental protection policy and the ACT parks and conservation service.
As our climate changes the threat of bushfire looms ever greater. The budget provides just over $3.1 million for three years to further improve our capacity to access and fight bushfires, particularly in remote areas, and improve our capacity to undertake
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