Page 747 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, the purpose of the public hearings in Canberra over two days is similar to that of the public hearings that are being held around Australia for a couple of days, and that is to get the views of members of the public as to what is going on with urban public transport. ACTION, like other urban public transport authorities, are preparing documentation to give to the commission, which the commission, on the information I have given, has agreed could be given after the round of public hearings; that is, the commission is going out to get the views of the public and it will at a later date get information from governments.
I have indicated in this place before that we are embarking on some work in terms of benchmarking to try to get some ground rules for the level of efficiency or inefficiency in ACTION to pinpoint areas for reform. That work has been ongoing for some months and, as that work is done, so we can prepare material and give it to the Industry Commission. The simple facts are, Mr De Domenico, that that has been agreed by the Industry Commission. A commissioner this morning took it upon himself to get on radio and attack this Government. As I said earlier, that ill-tempered and intemperate sort of attack from a member of the Industry Commission does nothing to enhance the already fairly severely damaged reputation that the Industry Commission has. If they cannot get simple housekeeping measures right, like remembering that they have entered into agreements with the ACT Government for a timeline for preparation of submissions, one must question their general judgment.
Acton Peninsula
MS SZUTY: My question without notice is to the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, and relates to the consultation processes with regard to the future of Acton Peninsula. Can the Chief Minister explain the consultation process and the role of the consultative committee, the Acton project management team, the working group and the steering committee, and why the steering committee of Mr Lyndsay Neilson, chair of the National Capital Planning Authority, Mr Jeff Townsend, of the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, Mr John Turner, of the Department of Urban Services, and Ms Gillian Biscoe, of ACT Health, appears to have the final veto over the views of all the other groups?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I will delegate that question to the Minister responsible, Mr Wood.
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I will respond, but the major response is simply that the question should be directed to the NCPA, that body having the total responsibility for planning on Acton Peninsula. I point out again that it is the ACT Government that in the end will determine what goes on Acton Peninsula, as for City Hill. But that is a process that Mr Lyndsay Neilson has been running; it is very much his agenda. There is obviously an interest on the part of the ACT Government and the ACT Planning Authority, but we do not have carriage. We express our views, and I am quite happy that in the end our views will be the ones that dominate because nothing happens there except as we determine.
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