Page 4996 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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INTERIM PLANNING BILL 1990
[COGNATE BILL:
INTERIM PLANNING (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) BILL 1990]
Debate resumed from 29 November 1990, on motion by Mr Kaine:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SPEAKER: I believe that it is the will of the Assembly to debate this Bill and the Interim Planning (Consequential Amendments) Bill cognately. I draw members' attention to the fact that, when debating this Bill, you are in fact debating orders of the day Nos 7 and 8 together.
MR CONNOLLY (9.40): The Bills now before the Assembly are an admission of failure. They are an admission of failure by this Alliance Government to deal properly with planning legislation. They are an admission of failure because they are acknowledging that this Government has failed in its duty. I say "duty" advisedly, because it is a duty imposed on the ACT Government by the Federal Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act. This Government has failed in its duty to prepare a Territory Plan and get appropriate planning legislation into place. It has had over 12 months in government to do that.
Mr Wood: And a good start.
MR CONNOLLY: And a good start, as Mr Wood says. We are little further advanced than we were back in the middle of this year. At the time the planning Bills were introduced into the house in February, what did the Government have to say about Labor's work in bringing the Bills to the drafting instructions stage and issuing discussion papers? Was there any appreciation of the work that Labor had done? No, not a bit.
When these Bills were first introduced, Mr Jensen said, "This is legislation that we have always maintained should have been passed and operating by now". So, there we are: in February Mr Jensen, for the Alliance Government, is saying that, "The planning and land management legislative package should have been passed and operating by now. We have always maintained that". Here we are in the last sitting week in December, and we still have not seen the so-called redraft of the exposure draft of the planning and land management legislative package.
What is the consequence of this failure? The principal consequence of this failure, of course, is that, unless the Government goes to this necessary expedient of an interim planning Bill, we could reach the position where the Territory has no control over its land planning. We are all given to understand now that the Commonwealth is
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