Page 2868 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Berry: What legal service?
MR HUMPHRIES: I am talking about the legal section within the Health Authority, Minister. These kinds of issues are not very large in the scale of the $1.2 billion budget that the Administration has at its disposal but they are important in terms of reducing what we see as important areas of overexpenditure. I hope that issues of this kind are not thrust to the bottom of the Government's list of priorities. They are important because they do facilitate, if properly addressed, changes in priorities and the capacity of the Government to meet new demands. In any of these areas we are considering today it is possible that governments may find that new needs arise and have to be addressed. If needless overexpenditure occurs in other places it is hard to meet those new needs by reallocating resources. As I said before, and I say it again, I do hope the Government is not ignoring this and is reaching some view on this matter.
Division agreed to.
Proposed expenditure - Territory Planning Office -
Division 60, $4,096,500
MR JENSEN (4.47): Mr Speaker, I will not speak too long on this particular topic, although I am sure there is much that I could say. Much has already been said in other forums and in other debates about the issue of planning and the lack of planning legislation. However, I would like to make one or two comments in relation to the failure by the Government to make proper provision in this regard during a period of some six months. Some extensive community consultation took place over a period of almost two years in the ACT, prior to the demise of the NCDC, when the issue of planning and the future of planning in the ACT was discussed at length and at many seminars and programs.
I accept the fact that the Government may wish to put its own imprimatur on the planning system within the ACT. So be it. That is quite acceptable. However, might I suggest that during the period in the lead-up to the issue and in preparation for the election campaign the Government should have come up with a program for the introduction of planning legislation within the ACT, as the Rally did in its extensive policy on planning.
Over the last six months, the Minister for Industry, Employment and Education has indicated at times that it is the Rally that is responsible for the holding up of development in the ACT. I put it to you, Mr Speaker and members of the Assembly, that it is not the Rally that has been holding up development in the ACT but it is the lack of any clear direction from this Government in relation to planning. It was only after considerable pushing by the Rally that the Chief Minister indicated at one stage that
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .