Page 3885 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 September 2018
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included members of our community in the consensus, building around possible ways to respond to the challenge of diversifying housing choice.
The ACT government has broken new ground with its collaboration hub. Representatives of the Canberra community have had the opportunity to influence the city’s planning and housing policies in a new way that is more representative than the standard draft policy and six-week consultation approach.
On 28 July this year, the collaboration hub participants presented their report recommendations to me. The collaboration hub made 13 recommendations on ways to improve housing choices under the following nine themes: affordability, character, environment, lifestyle and diversity, planning and approvals, public housing, quality of construction, quality of design, and zoning.
These themes and recommendations are consistent with messages we have been hearing from the Canberra community in recent years. I have agreed to pursue all 13 of the recommendations. I have given support in principle to the recommendations. They can be addressed through various ongoing and future projects by the government. Work can now begin on considering the recommendations over the next few years.
In addition to recommendations on housing choices, many of the recommendations relate to other responsibilities of EPSDD and other government agencies. These include administration of the ACT planning system, the Territory Plan, the ACT planning strategy, planning approvals, affordable housing, environment, quality of construction and design, affordable housing, and public housing as well.
Recommendations that may involve amending policy and regulations will be examined further in detail to identify the best way for them to be addressed. Some can be resolved through the housing choices project, while others will be resolved through other ongoing work.
Some recommendations could translate into changes to the Territory Plan, which would be undertaken by EPSDD. This process would involve further engagement with the Canberra community to discuss any proposed changes to planning policies and, of course, regulation. Other ACT agencies will be responsible for service delivery and consequently the implementation of the housing choices project in the long term.
A final thankyou to the newDemocracy Foundation and expert facilitators from Straight Talk for the professional management and support they provided to the collaboration hub. These people were the key to ensuring this process and the recommendations were independent of government and grounded in genuine deliberative engagement. I present the following papers:
ACT Housing Choices Collaboration Hub—
Recommendations—Government response—Ministerial statement, 20 September 2018.
Government response, dated September 2018.
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