Page 4634 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 15 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Planning Standards
MRS GRASSBY: My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Is the Minister aware of the statements by the new president of the Royal Australian Planning Institute, ACT Division, Ms Barbara Norman, that the principles underpinning Canberra's planning are being eroded? Are our standards slipping?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, our standards are not slipping. I congratulate Ms Norman on her appointment. She will provide, I know, outstanding leadership to that important body. However, I think some of the comments that are reported in the newspaper, and perhaps they were only part of her comments, reflect a touch of nostalgia for the good old days. In terms of the unlimited funding the NCDC had, they might have been good old days; in terms of planning they were good days, let me confirm. I think what we are doing indicates quite clearly that, in terms of planning, the days are getting better. I do not think there is any doubt about that.
In her article she really offered only one point in support of the claim that things are not as good. She was disgusted or amazed by the fact that there were no footpaths in Gungahlin. There are footpaths in Gungahlin, so I do not know how that statement could be made. In new suburbs, of course, the footpaths tend to come at the end of the process, so some parts of Gungahlin have yet to get footpaths. I point out that I live in a house that was built in 1959, I think, in the good old days of the NCDC. I do not have a footpath in front of me or over the road or, since I am on a corner, next to me. I think many of us live in streets without footpaths. So I think a poor argument was given to suggest that planning matters are not as good as they used to be.
Let me point to some areas where we are getting better. For example, we live in a system of freeways. Perhaps that was reasonable planning in the sixties and seventies, when the plan was drawn up, so I will not criticise too much our very substantial dependence on the car. The planners in those days did not have the good sense we have today in terms of planning for solar efficiency. I will give Ms Norman a briefing on our new subdivisions, which are of a sort you did not see in the days of the NCDC. Now the street alignments take as much account as is possible of solar efficiency; the streets are aligned to gain maximum solar benefits for the allotments, and many of the allotments are now shaped to facilitate that. That is a distinct improvement on what used to happen.
A further distinct improvement is the five-star energy rating that will soon become obligatory. The NCDC did not do that. I can say that we have taken the good foundations of the past and are building and improving on those, and I would be delighted to give a briefing to Ms Norman about that. Finally, as members of this Assembly know, in the good old days of the NCDC there was no such thing as consultation; there was a bit of an advisory committee. Members here know the processes that have been built into the system and the very considerable degree of consultation that now takes place.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .