Page 4034 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (11.56): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
This bill is about the public notification of applications for development approval under the Planning and Development Act. This process is commonly known as the notification process for development applications. There has, as members would be aware, already been significant debate on this area. The matter was debated during the government’s previous term when Labor’s Planning and Development Act was passed, with the support of all parties in this place, in August 2007.
Some years later, the issue of notification was again debated in response to the ACT Greens party bill—the Planning and Development (Notifications and Review) Amendment Bill 2009. I said at the time that the intentions of that bill were good, but they were impractical and lacked a sense of the big picture. During debate on the Greens party bill, I confirmed that the government would bring forward its own legislation on public notification later in the year. The bill I now present is indeed that bill.
The bill includes practical, well-targeted measures to strengthen the public notification process. This is a bill of realistic scope and practical ambition. The government has clearly set out its position on public notification and third party appeals. The government supports a public notification assessment and appeal process that is fair, effective and able to produce timely decisions that can be relied upon. This bill falls squarely within these longstanding parameters.
I will now highlight some of the features of the bill. Under the Planning and Development Act, applications for approval assessed in the merit and impact tracks must be publicly notified. The notification period is 10 or 15 working days, depending on the nature of the proposal. The notification might involve a sign on the property, a notice in the newspaper or letters to adjoining properties. Anyone is entitled to comment on a development application that is notified.
The mechanisms in the bill will apply in the event of a significant error in public notification. The bill will require the public notification to be repeated in specified circumstances. A repeat public notification will be required if the original notice is defective and, in the Planning and Land Authority’s view, the defect is likely to impair someone’s ability to comment. The defect might be as a result of an incomplete, misleading or inaccurate notice. For example, a notice which included only a partial description of the proposed development could amount to a defect requiring repeat public notification.
Importantly, though, the mechanism only applies to defects that come to ACTPLA’s attention during the original public notification period. This time limit is necessary to provide certainty to landowners and the general public. The time limit will mean that once a development application is decided, it will not be open to challenge on the basis of public notification months down the track.
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