Page 3854 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 September 2017
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attend schools here; they access health and other services here; and they contribute to the great community that is Canberra. It is the responsibility of a caring government that they not be allowed to fall through the cracks and be abandoned while jurisdictional disputes get resolved.
I once again reiterate to the minister and this government: do not forget these Canberrans. Again I make it clear that I will always be willing to work with her and this government to make sure that we do not. I also acknowledge and undertake the duty of my privileged role to continue to press my federal colleagues to do what we can to protect and provide for Canberra families when they need us most.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Planning and Development Amendment Bill 2017
Debate resumed from 24 August 2017, on motion by Mr Gentleman:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (10.51): I rise to speak today about the Planning and Development Amendment Bill 2017. I will talk to three distinct parts of it. Firstly, it provides a planning assessment framework for the storage of hazardous materials. Secondly, it allows for a development application proponent to apply for an environmental significance opinion, or ESO, from the planning and land authority when the proposal relates to a contaminated site; if the authority provides an ESO stating that the development will not have a significant environmental impact, the proposal is removed from the impact track. Thirdly, the amendment requires that all draft variations to the Territory Plan be referred to the planning committee.
You can see from those three distinct areas that the bill covers a wide range of information. We will be supporting the bill today, although we have a couple of amendments. I believe the minister is also circulating a couple of minor amendments, which we will also be supporting today.
When talking about the storage of hazardous materials, under the current planning assessment framework the storage of dangerous substances might commence on a site without the need for planning assessment and approval. For example, a warehouse may move from storing bottled water to storing some dangerous substances without the need for any information to be kept or provided to the planning authority. So the planning and land authority would not necessarily be notified of the commencement of storing dangerous substances, and that type of activity does not fall under the planning assessment framework.
Under the changes proposed in this amendment bill, Access Canberra will maintain a register of dangerous items so that each block can be assessed, and all holders of dangerous substances will have six months to get their premises onto that register. During the briefing from the directorate, we did ask about whether there would be an audit to ensure that all dangerous substances are registered. We were advised that there would not be an audit, so how the compliance activity will take place will be
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