Page 5653 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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A number of comments were made in relation to matters that lie outside the scope of this bill. The government will continue to consult on these matters and to assess the need for further administrative, legislative or other adjustment.
My approach to the ACT’s planning legislation is that it should be open to periodic review and continuous improvement to ensure it continues to meet the needs of industry and community. It should also reflect leading practice across the nation.
In this context, it is timely to briefly reflect on the unequivocal value of the Planning and Land Authority’s ACTPLAn initiative. ACTPLAn was implemented almost 12 months ago to the day as part of the ACT Labor government’s determination to see our building industry through the worst economic downturn since the 1920s. This initiative has delivered better customer service and stronger coordination between ACTPLA and other agencies.
It has resulted in the creation of the industry monitoring group to improve communication between government agencies and industry. This group includes representatives from the Housing Industry Association, the Master Builders Association and the Property Council. It was originally envisaged that this body would exist for a period of 12 months. However, it has proven so effective that all members have agreed to keep it going as an effective way to identify and resolve issues as they arise.
This industry monitoring group has expressed its general support for this bill, subject to the detailed comments I mentioned earlier. The group has also expressed its support for a number of recent regulations to reduce red tape by exempting certain development from the need for development approval.
The value of ACTPLAn is clear when one looks, for example, at the improvements in the processing time for development applications. As a result of these initiatives, 1,483 merit track DAs, with an estimated value of $1 billion, were assessed and determined between Christmas 2008 and 28 October 2009. Development application processing times have been steadily improving since the introduction of the new planning system in March 2008. The average processing time for all DAs under the new system is approximately 35 business days, an excellent result when compared to other jurisdictions. ACTPLAn achieved its best result in November 2009, reaching 82 per cent of merit track applications determined within the legislated time frame. These practical results help illustrate the real-world worth of this government’s drive to cut red tape.
I turn now to the specifics of this bill and its potential to build on these recent system improvements. A significant number of the provisions in the bill are of a technical and minor nature. For example, some changes are made to terminology to ensure consistency with the terminology in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2008. I do not propose to go into these in any detail at this stage. For now, I will simply highlight a number of the more significant features of the bill and in doing so will refer to a number of specific clauses.
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