Crispin Hull

The Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, rejected yesterday a call to re-open tenders for three new trunk-route service stations. The call came from the Canberra Property Owners Association who asserted in a letter to Mr Wood with copies to other Assembly members that the tender process was flawed and that a recent Trade Practices action required that the tenders be reopened.

Association secretary Styliani Contis said two of the tender requirements were inconsistent. One required the applicant to be “independent”. On the other hand, another required continuity of supply. The only way to secure continuity of supply was to make an arrangement with one of only five suppliers or fuel in Australia, which would inevitably contrary to the independence requirement.

The applicant was also required to act competitively and remain competitive. But the central control by the major oil companies made these requirements impossible to monitor.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_petrol”

A drafting error means that the Yes vote will have to be as high as 60 per cent _ not just a bare 50 per cent majority _ for the referendum question to be passed, according to legal sources.

The drafting error is in the referendum provision of the Federal ACT Self-Government Act and so could not be corrected by the Assembly (even if it was aware of it).

The provision uses the words: “”If a majority of electors approve the entrenching law . . . ”
Continue reading “1994_12_december_referen”

The ACT Government’s proposal to cull kangaroos has proven to be unnecessary, according to the Canberra Conservation Council.

The president of the council, Jacqui Rees, said yesterday that no rural lessee had applied for a culling licence because with recent rain the kangaroos had gone back from farmland to the nature reserves, and departmental officials had admitted this.

The culling plan was an over-reaction. Ms Rees called on the Minister for the Environment, Bill Wood, to reverse the culling decision and look at new technologies such as the device which gave off high-pitched sound inaudible to humans but which gave kangaroos a temporary headache.

Mr Wood had questioned the device because it might not pass animal welfare requirements, “”but surely it was less cruel than kangaroo shooting which often resulted in slow deaths for the kangaroos when shooters missed an instant kill.”

<<The Opposition spokesman on planning, Greg Cornwell, said yesterday that approval for an development in Hunter Street, Yarralumla, had been given three days before the Landsdown report, which would have recommended against it, had been made public.

He said in Question Time that the Deputy Chief Minister, David Lamont, had subsequently given an assurance to residents that Hunter Street would be part of a local area plan under the Landsdown framework, but the approval for multi-unit development on a single site had already been given, contrary to the Landsdown recommendations.

The Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, said it was “”a matter for careful definition”” he would have to seek details and get back to Mr Cornwell.

The president of the Save Our City coalition, Jacqui Rees, said the Government had had the Landsdown report for 10 days beforehand so it knew that the Yarralumla decision would have been incompatible with it.

“”This is why we need an inquiry with teeth that can take evidence under the Inquiries Act to find out why such untoward planning decisions are being made,” she said.

In another planning matter, Mr Wood assured Independent Michael Moore that all due processes would be followed in the redevelopment of the Starlight Drive-In site.

Moore Independent candidate Mark Dunstone said in a statement yesterday that a lease variation to enable the development and design and siting approval had not yet been given. Brochures produced by the developer could give the impression that planning approval was not a major issue. He said consumers looking at buying off the plan should look carefully at the planning status of the development.

The Greens have warned the Government that they will turn electoral fury on it over its pro-woodchipping decision last week. They were mainly talking about the House of Representatives and how they will withdraw Green preferences from key Labor candidates. They asserted that Green preferences have saved Labor from electoral defeat several times in the past decade.

However, the precise effect of the Green vote in the House has been hard to quantify. Moreover, Labor asserts that Green voters have got nowhere else to put their preferences, given the Coalition’s environment record, which it argues is worse.

But whatever the effect in the House, it is clear that the Green vote in the Senate is critical. In the past two years the Greens have broken the Democrat-Labor majority in the Senate and made government for labor quite difficult.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_senate”

The ACT Government’s proposal to cull kangaroos has proven to be unnecessary, according to the Canberra Conservation Council.

The president of the council, Jacqui Rees, said yesterday that no rural lessee had applied for a culling licence because with recent rain the kangaroos had gone back from farmland to the nature reserves, and departmental officials had admitted this.

The culling plan was an over-reaction. Ms Rees called on the Minister for the Environment, Bill Wood, to reverse the culling decision and look at new technologies such as the device which gave off high-pitched sound inaudible to humans but which gave kangaroos a temporary headache.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_roos”

By CRISPIN HULL A drafting error means that the Yes vote will have to be as high as 60 per cent _ not just a bare 50 per cent majority _ for the referendum question to be passed, according to legal sources.

The drafting error is in the referendum provision of the Federal ACT Self-Government Act and so could not be corrected by the Assembly (even if it was aware of it).

The provision uses the words: “”If a majority of electors approve the entrenching law . . . ”
Continue reading “1994_12_december_referen”

The Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, rejected yesterday a call to re-open tenders for three new trunk-route service stations. The call came from the Canberra Property Owners Association who asserted in a letter to Mr Wood with copies to other Assembly members that the tender process was flawed and that a recent Trade Practices action required that the tenders be reopened.

Association secretary Styliani Contis said two of the tender requirements were inconsistent. One required the applicant to be “independent”. On the other hand, another required continuity of supply. The only way to secure continuity of supply was to make an arrangement with one of only five suppliers or fuel in Australia, which would inevitably contrary to the independence requirement.

The applicant was also required to act competitively and remain competitive. But the central control by the major oil companies made these requirements impossible to monitor.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_petrol”

The party is over before it began for Australians Against Further Immigration _ at least in the ACT. The party did not got the requisite 100 members in the ACT to be registered in time for February’s election and the name will not appear on the ballot paper.

Yesterday was the last day it could submit an application in order to get its name on the ballot paper.

The anti-immigration party has polled around 8 per cent in some by-elections recently which in the Act context would have put it in the running for a seat. Now it will have to rely on its own advertising to associate its candidates with the name.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_parties”

The ACT Government lost up to $15 million by allowing the private sector to develop the Gungahlin suburb of Palmerston, according to three academics who won a planning award for their work last night.

The academics say that, alternatively, the Government could have cut the cost of land by about $9000 a block.

The academics agree with the ACT Government’s position of taking a greater role in greenfields development by moving from privatisation to more joint ventures. But they say the Government could take the whole thing over.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_neutze1”

Paul Keating’s dipping of his toes into the waters of town planning earlier this year has now resulted in him getting a thorough bucketing. He thought the Cahill Expressway should be knocked down on aesthetic grounds because it cut the city from the harbour _ in much the same way as Parkes Way cuts the city from the lake in Canberra.

On the expressway, Keating was talking about how a grubby transport route was messing up the ambiance of the city and the lifestyle of its residents. Now, of course, a different major transport route approved by his government (the third runway) has wrecked the lifestyle of 100,000 residents _ town planning at its worst.

The episodes illustrate the very political nature of town planning _ which goes back some centuries, or indeed, millennium.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_ncpamag”