Page 977 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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House Building Approvals
MR MOORE: My question is to the Chief Minister, Mr Kaine. I refer you to the matter of public importance discussed in this house on 20 February 1991, relating to objections raised by residents of Calwell to certain residential planning decisions. At one point you said, and I quote from Hansard:
... I am informed that other examples of adjacent identical houses exist, for instance, in places like Bruce Heights. It is not unusual to find that somebody builds houses of the same design.
Can the Chief Minister tell us who informed him of the existence of those houses; where the houses are located, since the residents of Calwell went looking for them out of an obvious interest in the matter and failed to find them; whether or not those houses bear any physical resemblances to the design of the houses in question in Calwell; and whether or not those residences interfere with their neighbours' amenities in the same manner as that claimed by the residents of Calwell?
MR KAINE: Mr Moore asked almost the same question on 20 February and I undertook to answer it. In fact, I have the answer, so I will provide it to him in full. Of course, there are inferences and suggestions in Mr Moore's question that I think need to be set aside.
Mr Speaker, the Interim Territory Planning Authority was the body that advised me that there are other examples of identically designed houses in Canberra, and I think it would be in a position to know. Examples at Bruce, which I mentioned, where identical large detached houses have been built side by side, are at sections 53, 68 and 71. Identical houses are usually found on sites released for multiple dwellings, as in the examples given at Bruce, but the final result on the ground is the same.
In the case of standard house blocks released individually, builders and lessees usually seek variety in design; but the Planning Authority does not refuse identical designs as a design and siting matter, and nor should it. As long as the designs meet all of the planning parameters, the Planning Authority has no right or authority to refuse to accept them. The Planning Authority has advised me that recent examples of identical house designs on standard blocks can be found at blocks 22 and 23 of section 707 in Calwell, blocks 162 and 163 of section 754 in Calwell, and blocks 20, 21 and 23 of section 624 in Theodore. So, it is not at all unusual. In the latter two cases different external bricks and tiles have been used, but the designs are the same.
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