Page 4443 - Week 12 - Thursday, 26 October 2017
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I move:
That the report be noted.
Today the planning and urban renewal committee is tabling its second report for the Ninth Assembly. The report presents our findings from the inquiry into billboards, which was self-referred by the committee in March.
The committee was fortunate in receiving a large number of submissions, 166. We held three public hearings, at which we heard from 13 witnesses from the ACT government, the advertising industry and, importantly, the ACT community. The committee would like to acknowledge the contributions made to the inquiry by organisations and individuals who provided submissions and evidence at the public hearings and thank all those concerned.
In particular, I personally would like to thank the other members of the committee: Ms Suzanne Orr, who is the deputy chair, Ms Nicole Lawder, Ms Tara Cheyne and Mr James Milligan. I would also, importantly, like to thank the committee secretary, Annemieke Jongsma.
It is clear to the committee that the issue of billboards is an important one to a range of people in the community, so much so that in fact there was a related petition presented to the Assembly. The majority of evidence submitted to the inquiry was not in favour of the introduction of billboards in the ACT. However, some evidence provided to the committee suggested that properly regulated and enforced advertising on billboards could have positive economic benefits for the ACT.
It was very apparent during the inquiry that the community was not sure what a billboard was or what signage was allowable in Canberra. This highlighted to the committee the inadequacy of, and the lack of consistency in, the interpretation and enforcement of the current rules and regulations for advertising signage.
Evidence received from the community, industry and government leads the committee to conclude that there is a need to holistically review, simplify and update current advertising and signage legislative documents and associated guidelines, regulations and codes of practice and engage in enforcement of these consistently across the ACT. For this to occur, a coordinated and collaborative approach across a number of government agencies and directorates, in conjunction with the ACT community, ACT businesses and industry, will be required.
Therefore the committee’s key recommendation, recommendation 1, recommends a review and potential update of the Signs General Code, the Public Unleased Land Act 2013, the Planning and Development Act 2007 and associated regulations and codes of practice. This review is to be completed by 2019. The 13 other recommendations concentrate primarily on the issues that the government should consider in this review. They also focus on improvements to the regulatory regime.
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