Page 3271 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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to get to the problems of the industry. It seems short-sighted of him to seek to address some of the industry’s problems without paying the proper respect to other issues that exist within the industry. This is a motion that Mr Parton brought to the Assembly many months ago. Due to procedural backlogs, it seems, it has taken as long to debate this motion in the Assembly as it takes to process many DAs in the ACT; perhaps quicker than many.
The processing times for DAs have a multifaceted impact on the ACT, not just in the construction industry but on the economy as a whole. We are seeing the statutory processing time for development applications under the tenure of this government and under the tenure of this minister continue to exceed those statutorily obligated time frames. There are instances that I am aware of where development applications are taking in excess of 12 months to be processed. In excess of a year to get a building permit approved? That just reeks of incompetence, Madam Assistant Speaker.
Under the oversight of the department and the minister—this is a Westminster government; the minister is ultimately responsible—there are continuing to be failings.
It is worth adding a bit of history and context around my personal interest in this issue. As many members know, I come from the construction industry. It is also worth noting that in 2008, when the Labor government sought to amend the Territory Plan and overhaul the planning system, our small business went from getting things approved in a matter of weeks to having it take four months. For a small business, that is crippling. But compare that to what we have today. Four months to get a DA approved would be really good. The minister has been overseeing a continual deterioration in the processing and scrutiny of applications over the six years that he has occupied the office. In six years it has gone down rapidly.
The reason I say that there are broader implications from the delay in DA processing is that it is not just the time it takes to get an application through. Suppose someone in the industry is holding a block of land. Particularly if you are talking about new homes or unit developments, someone has had to purchase the block and go through the planning phases—getting architects to design the site, estimate it, cost it and make sure that it is a viable project—only then to then go through the regulatory hurdles of getting the project approved. This is where the time delay comes. While the department is dragging its heels in trying to determine whether or not a project should be approved, that is costing money. If it is for new homes, it is the home buyer that has to foot the bill at the end of the day. If it is for units, often there are pre-sales, and the margins get tighter and tighter, be they for the developer or for subcontractors.
What we have been discussing in the Assembly over a number of weeks—it was touched on again during question time today by the minister for building quality—is the absolutely lax standard of construction in the territory at the moment. That is a legacy issue from years and years of failure to enforce the regulations as they stand in the industry and as a result of the delays that continue to plague the bureaucracy and the government in determining their regulatory obligations when it comes to assessing development applications.
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