Page 5612 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 November 2010
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Turning to the specific motion that Mr Hanson has moved this evening, it does appear to be at odds with what Mr Smyth put before us earlier this year. Mr Speaker, you would recall that at that time we agreed to Mr Smyth’s motion and an amendment moved by Ms Le Couteur that called on the government to prepare a priority list of centres to be master-planned over coming years. The motion also called on the government to report back to the Assembly by the end of June 2011.
I can assure Mr Hanson that the priority list will be premised on where growth pressures are the greatest and, after town centres, group centres and transport corridors will be the priority. We are working to prepare this priority list to ensure that we take a robust and evidence-based approach to the preparation of master plans.
I should note at this point that each master plan comes with a cost. We need to budget for them. They are not things that this Assembly can just pass motions on every couple of months and think that the Planning and Land Authority has the resources to do so. We must appropriate funds to enable the authority to do this and there are clearly only a certain number of plans that can be completed effectively in any given time period.
We did pass a motion in August calling for the preparation of a master plan for Kambah Village by the first sitting week in September 2011. This will of course have to be done in addition to the existing program. So there is simply no capacity within the existing budget and within existing human resources to undertake any more master plans in this time period. We are, of course, working towards the delivery of this plan and all of the others that I have jut outlined. It must be stressed in this context that the Planning and Land Authority does not have endless resources.
In closing, we would like to advise members that clearly there are many issues that group and local centres have in common, regardless of where they are in the territory. I am indicating to members and the general public that the government will put forward a series of discussion papers and raise a series of questions that are common across all group centres in the territory, recognising that there are many things that group centres have in common and that they face similar issues as we move into our second century as a city. But I also recognise that there are specific local needs from group centre to group centre. That is why it is appropriate to have a master plan in process and, I think, a detailed process for each centre to respond to the unique aspects of each group centre within the city.
As I say, there are also many things they share in common and those common threads, those common elements, are something that I intend to have a further debate with the community about, particularly in relation to urban renewal density and the capacity for group and local centres to accommodate mixed use redevelopment that would enhance the residential populations within group and local centres. And this is something that I will obviously have more to say about in the near future.
In summing, up the government will not be supporting Mr Hanson’s motion today. However, I do not think it is necessary to defeat the motion, simply to defer it, to adjourn it, and acknowledge that the government will, according to the resolution
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