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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 522 ..

Debate resumed from 27 June 1996, on motion by Mr Moore:

That the report be noted.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (11.05): Mr Speaker, I have some comments to make on the report. This is a fairly long and complicated process. There was the Stein report, then there was a Government response to the report, then there was an Assembly committee response to the Government response, and now I am proposing to deliver a Government response to the committee response to the Government response to the Stein report.

Mr Moore: You put in the legislation. That is what I mean.

MR HUMPHRIES: We put legislation forward, which is our response, but there are some things raised in the report which we have not responded to in legislation. We do not want to be censured or something for not fully addressing the issues, so I propose to make some comments.

Mr Moore: Good. I am glad you wear it.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes. Precautions such as this, we feel, are appropriate, Mr Speaker, and I have some comments to make. Members are aware, obviously, of the extensive scrutiny of the planning and leasehold system which Stein undertook. The Government response, as Mr Moore indicates, largely has been before the Assembly in the form of amendments to the Land (Planning and Environment) Act.

On 20 February this year I announced the appointment of Mr John McInerney as the Territory's first Commissioner for Land and Planning. That was, in the Government's view, perhaps the most significant single reform or change to the planning system which we have put in place following the Stein report. I must record that I think this is going to be a very important part of the process of giving people confidence in the nature of the processes used in planning in the Territory. I hope that that will be the outcome of this particular appointment. Significant initiatives have been introduced progressively from January 1996, however. The major step was the creation of the Planning and Land Management Group, and on 1 July new processes for building and development also took effect within that agency of the Department of Urban Services.

Looking at Report No. 13, I note that in paragraphs 8 to 11 of the introduction the report refers to "broad acceptance of most" of Justice Stein's recommendations. It acknowledges differences of opinion with the Government, particularly over the need for a statutory planning authority and a separate land authority, but it quite rightly notes that these are matters for the Assembly. The committee expected that many issues in the Stein report and the Government's response would be debated in the Assembly, and it referred to matters that "can be refined at a later stage of deliberations". Indeed, that has happened. The Assembly did consider those issues in debate over the legislation.

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