Page 958 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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Access Canberra, the certifier for their future projects is appointed by the ACT government. That is not onerous. There are people who argue that all certifiers should be appointed by the ACT government rather than letting the builder, in effect, decide on their own certifier. I know that officially it is the client who decides on the certifier, but in practice it is usually the builder.
I commend the report to the Assembly and, in particular, to the planning minister. I very much hope that the majority of the report, if not all, will be acted on. If that is the case, I think the level of angst and strife in the planning system will go down.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (11.56): This report has taken far too long to come to this chamber, and it is difficult to explain why. It was always going to be a monumental process and the world conspired in a number of ways to slow this process down. I would like to put on the record my apologies, as a member of this committee, for the fact that it has taken so long. To all those who have been waiting for this, I am sorry. I thank my other committee members, past and present, for being a part of this process, the amazing Annemieke, as well as Alice and all those involved in putting this document together.
So long was this process that during the period this report has been in the making a number of its recommendations have already been adopted. The development application pipeline causes a lot of grief in this city. There are a number in the community who believe the process favours developers and that it is at the centre of everything that is wrong with planning in this city. However, if you talk to pretty much anyone in the construction industry they will tell you that the DA system with all of its red tape and all of its delays is the biggest bane of their existence.
Because of the time taken to deliver this report it must be said that a number of recommendations that the committee originally considered were somewhat out of date for a number of reasons. As we get closer to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and, hopefully, into an economic recovery, it is abundantly clear that the construction industry will play a pivotal role.
At a time when other jurisdictions around the nation are doing whatever they possibly can—we are doing this as well but others are doing whatever they can—to free up the development pipeline, it would have been absurdly counterproductive for this committee to deliver a report recommending the creation of more red tape, more bureaucratic process and more cost burden to every DA. I can say that common sense prevailed and a number of recommendations that were considered were considered not to have their place in the final report. I thank committee members for their commonsense approach.
I have major concerns for the construction industry in our city and right around the nation. The COVID slowdown in retail and hospitality and tourism sectors has been immediate because doors were shut. That is not the case with construction because whatever was in the pipeline has been constructed. The slowdown in construction will not happen until about now.
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