Suggestions that the Federal Parliament should take action on the goings-on in the ACT territory usually draw cries of foul or interference. The latest is the question of Gungahlin Drive.
On its face, it seems like a simple case of providing a road for the people of Gungahlin to get expeditiously to the other parts of Canberra. So why should the Federal Parliament or the Federal Capital Authority get involved?
Previously the Federal Parliament has got involved over the great moral issues of euthanasia and how to deal with the drug problem.
In the case of euthanasia, the Northern Territory and the ACT had much to be upset about. Having been granted self-government, the Federal Government singled them out for special treatment, using the territories power in the constitution. It did not attempt to ban euthanasia throughout Australia, presumably because it thought it did not have the constitutional power. That being the case, it was an unprincipled interference in local affairs based upon the personal moral predilections of the individual parliamentarians who voted for it.
The question of dealing with heroin is different in that the Federal Parliament has power over imports, including heroin, and power over foreign affairs, including drug-enforcement treaties. Moreover, the Federal Government has vowed to pitch its battle nationally. So whatever one’s a view of the Federal Government’s attitude to heroin, it cannot be described as interference in territory affairs (just bad national policy).
The question of Gungahlin Drive is different again.
Far from being an interference, the Federal Government and the National Capital Authority have a positive duty to weigh up the merits of the various Gungahlin Drive proposals. The only surprise should be that it has taken them so long to express an interest in what has been a heated debate in Canberra for several years.
The question of interference that arose in the euthanasia question does not apply to planning issues in the ACT. This is because Canberra is the national capital and the whole nation has an interest in the development of the city. And only the National Parliament can fulfil that role.
When Canberra was granted self-government by the Federal Parliament by a suite of legislation passed in 1988, the Federal Parliament deliberately withheld some powers from the local parliament on planning questions. In the Australian Capital territory (Planning and Land Management) Act, the Federal Parliament laid down the rules for the development and planning of Canberra. There was to be a national authority and a local authority. The local government was never given an unfettered power on planning, nor could they expect the federal authorities to rubber-stamp whatever they had in mind for Canberra.
The Act mandated the development of both a National Capital Plan and a Territory Plan. The object of the National Capital Plan was to “ensure that Canberra and the territory are planned and developed in accordance with their national significance”. The plan was to “set standards for the maintenance and the enhancement of the character of the National Capital and set general standards and aesthetic principles to be adhered to in the development of the National Capital.”
The Act specified that the National Capital Plan should set out a general policies of “the planning of national and arterial road systems”.
Given also the obvious national interest in maintaining the National Capital Open Space System, the National Capital Authority and the joint parliamentary committee that deals with the territories should take active interest in Gungahlin Drive, if necessary, vetoing any approach by the ACT of authorities that might compromise anything critical to the long-term interests that the nation has in the integrity of the Bush capital.
The Federal Parliament has the perfect right to determine the issue. Indeed, it and the National Capital Authority should involve themselves more when they see the local government making obvious blunders for short-term local gain that transgress the broad interests that the Australian population has in the national capital.