Page 3999 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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My electorate of Ginninderra, west Belconnen, is, of course, the best place in Canberra to live, and I cannot wait to continue working with everybody to make it even better.
Planning—community consultation
MR CAIN (Ginninderra) (5.56): As the shadow minister for planning and land management, I speak regularly about planning issues in my electorate of Ginninderra and around the ACT. Canberra, the bush capital, is the capital of this wonderful country and deserves the very best planning and services. As we are all aware, the government’s planning system review and reform project continues to forge ahead. I have had the privilege of engaging with Canberra’s community councils, other interest groups and individuals to hear their concerns and their voices on the future of planning in the ACT.
Over the last couple of months I have attended many meetings and hosted representatives in my office from various community councils and representative groups on the Planning Bill, the draft district strategies and the draft new Territory Plan. I want to acknowledge those who have reached out to me. I thank Bill Gemmell, Michelle Bourdet and Nicola Swann from the Weston Creek Community Council, Marea Fatseas, Anne Forrest and David Denham from the Inner South Canberra Community Council, and Fiona MacGregor from the Oaks Estate Residents Association. With respect to my own Belconnen Community Council, I say well done to Lachlan Butler and the recently retired and long-serving chair, Glen Hyde, for hosting a planning forum at the last meeting.
I want to acknowledge the work of the other community chairs and their support officers. They are all talking about planning at the moment. Well done to Henley Samuel on rising to the chair of the Gungahlin Community Council, and I say thank you to Peter Elford for his longstanding tenure in that role. I thank the North Canberra Community Council and Joachim Zeil; the Woden Valley Community Council and Fiona Carrick; the Molonglo Valley Community Forum, with Ryan Hemsley and Monique Brouwer; and the Tuggeranong Community Council, with Glenys Patulny and Jeffrey Bollard. Jeff has recently stood down from a longstanding role as chair.
It has been good to hear from a number of interest groups and professional associations, including the Master Builders Association. I thank the CEO, Michael Hopkins, for being a very active advocate for his members. With Greater Canberra, it was a pleasure to hear their perspective. Matt Bowes and Eben Leifer met with me just a few weeks ago. I also want to thank and congratulate Helen Oakey, from the Conservation Council, who recently moved to Victoria. I had a briefing with her just prior to her departure, and I look forward to hearing from the new CEO, Elle Lawless, early next year regarding their thoughts on planning in the territory.
I want to thank the department for a briefing in early October, as per normal procedure, on the Planning Bill. It was great to attend the Planning Institute of Australia ACT division awards recently. I thank Darren Crombie and CEO David Williams for extending that invitation. Of course, they are interested in planning in the territory. It has been great to meet virtually with my Liberal Party colleague and New
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