Page 2000 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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Clauses 138 to 142, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 143 agreed to.
Clauses 144 to 149, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 150.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (6.07): I move amendment No 22 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 2099].
Mr Speaker, this is one of those late amendments as we worked through this afternoon. I believe the government will be agreeing to it. This omits 150 (4) (a), which would waive the need for public notice under the earlier subsections “if, in the authority’s opinion, it would be impractical to give notice by post to the lessee of each adjoining place because of the number of adjoining places”. I think that is probably a little broad. It would certainly be of concern to residents who tend to be affected by these developments by virtue of the fact that they are hard to get hold of. There being too many apartments would be the most likely sort of scenario.
In response, the minister may wish to tell us the process this is going to go through in those kinds of circumstances. If it is an apartment complex, would we see some sort of public notification at the door or something like that, or letterboxing if each individual lessee cannot be contacted? We think this amendment will improve things somewhat and take away the broad discretion not to give notice under the earlier subsections.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (6.08): I thank the shadow minister for working with my office to see this amendment moved. The government will be supporting it. I acknowledge that there are some difficulties when it comes to particularly contacting tenants in large multi-unit developments. We are able, through various databases, to get access to the owners of the units, but it has often been the case that the tenants have not been advised of a development application because the landlord has not passed that information on.
Certainly I think it is incumbent upon the ACT Planning and Land Authority to look at other measures and other means to get the word out. I think it is fair to say, though, that, when a controversial development proposal is put forward, word of mouth is a very powerful tool in spreading the message; nonetheless, I think it is important that we look at some different ways, be that advice to the householder or, as Mr Seselja has suggested, perhaps be able to place some information on notice boards or whatever around multi-unit developments.
Of course, the authority does a tremendous amount of work in advising surrounding communities of development application proposals. We do go to great lengths on the authority’s website to make information available, but of course you can always do more. In that spirit, we accept the opposition’s amendment. We will look to provide an enhanced notification process for members of the public.
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