Page 1344 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020

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homebirths for a long time. It was part of the parliamentary agreement in the Seventh Assembly. I am very pleased that we have got to, hopefully, a final stage.

Recommendation 1 of the trial is that the ACT publicly funded homebirth trial be considered completed and the program be incorporated into the core business of the CHWC as an additional option of birth settings for eligible women. This will bring the ACT in line with other places which recognise that giving birth, while clearly a very risky proposition, is actually a normal part of life. And it can, in most cases, be very well managed at home. As the HACS report into maternity services said, what we need in our maternity services is a woman and baby-centred approach. Where this is what the woman would like then we should endeavour to provide it where it can be safely done, and it can be safely done in many more instances than it is currently done. I am very pleased with this recommendation and I am pleased that 42 mothers have successfully given birth under the scheme at present.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Waste—illegal dumping

That the Assembly take note of the following paper:

Litter and illegal dumping—Response to the resolution of the Assembly of 19 February 2020—Statement, dated June 2020.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Planning Legislation Amendment Bill 2020

Debate resumed from 7 May 2020, on motion by Ms Le Couteur:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Advanced Technology and Space Industries, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Urban Renewal) (2.56): I would like to thank Ms Le Couteur for raising the important issues that are outlined in her Planning Legislation Amendment Bill 2020. As chair of the Assembly’s planning and urban renewal committee, she has, over this term, heard evidence of the complexity of the planning system and has heard the conflicting views of members of the community about which issues should be prioritised at this time, which policy lever should be pulled and which regulation change will make the key difference. I appreciate Ms Le Couteur’s interest in ACT planning legislation and her work on considering changes to the planning framework through the bill.

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