Page 4334 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 25 October 2017
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the way on reforming the ACT’s sexual assault and privacy laws, starting with a petition, a discussion paper and legislation which formed part of the legislation which was eventually adopted in a wonderful spirit of tripartisan cooperation on criminalising the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. We intend to continue this with a look at the ACT’s consent laws.
I personally have been very concerned with planning matters. As we talked about this morning, it is very important for the Greens to see that the community’s voice is respectfully heard in all planning debates. That and the environmental issues and, of course, good planning outcomes, were the focus of the debate this morning. I am very pleased that the Liberal Party and the Greens were able to come to an agreement which will lead to a significantly better outcome for the community.
Where we have been looking at better outcomes for the community, in Curtin the proposed development was stopped and there is currently a community panel process, which I am hopeful will have a better outcome than the Federal Golf Course one did. On the basis of the feedback I have had from community members, I think that is possible. Certainly it is an area that we will keep working on. There has also been a commitment from the government to review their approach to calculating the lease variation charge after hearing concerns from both the industry and the community sector that, without some compromise, affordable housing could be held back in the ACT.
Speaking of affordable housing, I was very pleased to be able to attend the housing and homelessness summit the government ran last week. This was a parliamentary agreement item, and I look forward to considerable progress being made in this space following the summit. At the summit Minister Berry announced the Housing Innovation Fund, another part of the parliamentary agreement, which will be funding, hopefully, Homeshare, HomeGround and a potential Nightingale project, although I note that the Nightingale project should not require government funding, mainly government planning support.
Earlier this year my motion calling on the government to investigate a vacancy tax was passed by the Assembly and I believe will be implemented. Earlier still, we secured agreement from the government for both the City Renewal Authority and the Suburban Land Agency to have targets for affordable public and community housing and environmental sustainability requirements.
One thing that is important for the Greens is to move past the siloing of policy areas when it comes to urban design and have government and all of the Assembly recognise the interconnectivity of urban planning, housing, building design, climate change and the environment. It is one city. We need to make it sustainable.
The Greens are also the only party in the Assembly talking about population growth and the need to think of different ways for measuring the performance of our community, not just economics. We need to look at gross national happiness in the way that Bhutan does. We are not just here for the money.
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