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The old rules said that the telecommunications companies could ignore “”state and territory” planning laws, which meant they could build mobile-phone towers wherever they wanted in any state or the Northern Territory, but not the ACT.

The ACT is unique in Australia because it contains the National Capital and has Commonwealth planning laws. A Federal Act of Parliament called the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act puts in train the National Capital Plan which has the force of law, and because it is specific over-rides the general telecommunications provisions. The National Capital Plan requires that before major telecommunications facilities can be built in the ACT a plan must be drawn up by the National Capital Planning Authority jointly with the ACT Government and the in consultation with telecommunications industry.

That process is now in train. The ACT Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, met senior telecommunications executives a week ago to set the process in motion.

Local Federal MPs John Langmore and Senator Margaret Reid were also active in getting the companies to comply with some planning guidelines.

Once the ACT’s special status became clear it was almost inevitable that federal politicians would not tolerate a situation where the generally detested Canberra would get special treatment, and that has now come to pass.

It is now possible that the NCPA-ACT Government process might become the Australia-wide model.

It is likely that that model will give screening guidelines, prevent unnecessary duplication by providers, implement some sort of consultation process with local residents and attempt to meld the towers with general planning laws as far a possible.

The issue reached a head quickly in the ACT because the towers were planned for hilltops and under the National Capital Plan and in the general planning ethos, Canberra’s hills have been regarded as an almost sacred element of the Burley Griffin legacy _ Black Mountain aside.

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