Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-29 Daily Xml

Contents

BETTER DEVELOPMENT PLANS

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:15): By way of supplementary question, as well as improving consistency between the council plans, is it also the government's objective to use the planning policy library and the better development plan modules to reduce the number of categories 2 and 3 applications and thereby increase the number of category 1 applications that do not have to go through public consultation?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:15): The answer to that would really be, I guess, a subjective judgment that someone would make on the development processes, but the main purpose is to make it consistent. I have the power under the act to insist on the better development plan format, and we certainly encourage councils to comply with that, but I have not had cause to use those particular powers to date.

In relation to the categorisation of development, that comes back to the original question asked by the Hon. Sandra Kanck. As I said, I do not intend to comment on what is in the planning review until it is released, other than to say that obviously a simplification of the process is one of the main objectives. But, to try to reduce that to a particular categorisation would be to grossly oversimplify the objectives of that review, and I suggest that honourable members wait until that is released. They will not have to wait too much longer.