Page 2123 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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Clause 3 agreed to.
Clause 4 agreed to.
Clause 5.
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) (4.56): The government does not support clauses 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.56): In regard to clause 5, the Canberra Liberals believe it is one of the more sensible parts of a somewhat awkward bill that lurches around in many different spots. We see no reason not to support clause 5.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.57): I am also going to speak on clause 4 because it went through a little quicker than I expected. This clause fixes a huge bugbear of residents’ groups. Currently, if you want to find the approved plans for a DA or the plans that went out after the public consultation period is over you have to go to the directorate’s Dickson shopfront. When you get there, what do you do? You sit at a computer and look at the electronic plans. The question everyone asks is: why can they not be on the internet?
The answer is, of course, that they can be. I remember complaining about this in the Seventh Assembly. I was an IT manager before I came here; I know it is entirely possible. It is beyond me why the government chooses not to do this. I can see Ms Cheyne smiling. When we were both in the planning committee—I hope I am not verballing her—I think she might have had some views along these lines. Clause 5 is consequential to clause 6, and I recommend to members that they vote yes for both of them. It is beyond me why we did not do the DAs a decade ago.
Clause 5 agreed to.
Clause 6.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.59): This clause is important because it would stop the situation that we have recently seen where the government uses a Territory Plan variation interim effect to bypass community consultation and the will of the Assembly. I am hopeful that Mr Parton will support this because this is what the government did when we looked at draft variation 350, which closed the loophole in the multi-unit development. Mr Parton made some strong statements that the situation should not happen again, because the government did not draft the bill very well the first time, and it impacted a number of small developers that it should not have. Hopefully, Mr Parton will take the chance to make sure that that little type of stuff up does not happen again. This clause also addresses the first two points of the draft variation process so that interim effect can be brought into force. We are going to talk about the same things again in clauses 9 to 11.
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