Page 1613 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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The bill also makes a technical amendment to the Heritage Act 2004. As stated by my colleague Minister Gentleman, the amendment will remove a redundant provision which currently requires the ACT Heritage Council to consider whether a place or object no longer has heritage significance, even if deciding to continue its registration. The proposed amendment clarifies the decision-making process for the Heritage Council by removing this really quite redundant requirement. In doing this the amendment provides an easier decision-making process for the council and greater clarity for constituents who may wish to understand this process.
The PABELAB also makes amendments to the Nature Conservation Act 2014 which will result in better administrative efficiency. This will be achieved by requiring consultation with a lessee or a custodian on draft native species conservation and controlled native species plans only if the lessee or custodian is required to undertake an action. Importantly, the change does not affect the other public consultation processes currently under the Nature Conservation Act.
This bill also amends the Nature Conservation Act to ensure that a direction of the Conservator of Flora and Fauna provides realistic consistency with any of the plans or advice. The amendment provides that a direction must be not inconsistent, rather than requiring consistency with any applicable plans or advice, as this could prove far too onerous to be practically complied with.
The proposed amendments to the Planning and Development Regulation 2008 will improve consultation with the community on draft Territory Plan variations. Of course I am very interested in this, given there is one underway in my town centre at the moment. In its current form the regulation only requires a consultation notice to be provided to lessees of blocks in sections adjoining the draft Territory Plan variation. The bill improves consultation with the community as it expands the consultation notice requirement to include lessees of blocks within the subject section. That is a big improvement.
The PABELAB also amends the Planning and Development Regulation to substitute references to “Community Housing Canberra Ltd” with “registered community housing providers”. This amendment provides clarity to constituents who, on reading the provision, may not have previously realised that there will be other community housing providers in the territory in the future.
In summary, the PABELAB makes a number of minor and technical amendments across a range of legislation dealing with planning and environmental laws in the territory. I commend this bill to the Assembly as it provides greater clarity for decision-makers and constituents, improves administrative efficiency and improves consultation.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (5.03): The Greens will be supporting this bill. I would like to take the opportunity to briefly talk about three elements of it. Firstly, I want to go to the affordable community and public housing targets. These are the changes to section 65 of the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act. This will change the way the affordable community and public housing targets open.
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