Community Alliance Party

Speech to the Planning Institute of Australia, 17 October 2008

Firstly, I would like to thank Richard Johnston and the Planning Institute of Australia for the opportunity to be here today to present the Community Alliance Party’s vision for planning in the ACT.

My personal interest in planning matters has developed over recent years particularly through my role in preparing public documents for the recent planning system reform but also as someone who has seen at close hand the planning debacles for the closed schools, Tharwa Bridge, the Molonglo development and the Gas Fired Power Station.

Canberra is a beautiful city. As a community, we must genuinely appreciate the ACT’s fundamental role to be the seat of government for Australia, and to administer our land on behalf of the nation.

Planning in any jurisdiction is not just a technical task, but an area of public administration that must reflect the values and aspirations of the community it is to serve. And, it’s in this area that the Community Alliance hopes to bring real improvements for the many who feel let down by recent planning outcomes.

The ‘Community Alliance Party’ has a plan to improve ACT planning by encouraging community participation in overarching planning decisions. The rationale here is that if people are involved in a decision it is more likely to be a good decision and one that people have ownership of.

At a practical level, this means two things:

1. seeking community participation in developing a vision for the ACT that is generally accepted

2. bringing communities back into setting planning directions for our districts and neighbourhoods.

Something that we hear over and over again is that people and communities have been left out of the picture. This is a unfortunate consequence of the ACT government abandoning the neighbourhood basis for planning, despite there being no obvious community demand for such change.

The implications of this for neighbourhoods and communities are far reaching, because the neighbourhood has been a fundamental building block of Canberra and its planning hierarchy. Without such a basis, we have the situation where the government can persistently ignore the cries of local community in favour of an esoteric broader community. Without the neighbourhood level, Canberra is prone to having a growing number of dormitory suburbs devoid of community and social cohesion—Dunlop is a prime example.

At the macro level, the government has attempted to shift the vision for the ACT—from a ‘bush capital’ or ‘garden city’ to something akin to a ‘world-class’ or ‘international’ city. Fire and drought may have been used as scapegoats for this, but it’s clear the community has resisted this vision as evidenced by the block-by-block battles we’ve seen over many developments, even relatively small ones.

People are saying ‘we like what is unique about Canberra and don’t want it to become Sydney, Melbourne or some other city. In contrast, the Community Alliance will continue to work with our communities to develop a broad direction that IS accepted by Canberrans.

As part of this, the Alliance will strive to bring STATUTORY strategic direction, which although mentioned in the new Act, is sadly lacking from ACT planning. At the moment we have a block-by-block development control tool called the Territory Plan and a Spatial Plan with transitional and non-binding effect only.

Restoring an agreed strategic direction is a priority for the Community Alliance Party. Our policy is that we will work with the community, planners, the Commonwealth Government and others to restore an appropriate long-term vision to ACT planning. Our view is that Canberra’s role and function as the national capital is fundamental to the success and future of the ACT and to the planning that underpins it.

Finally, to meet the pressing needs of climate change and sustainability the Community Alliance advocates real and immediate response from the planning sector. We support a triple-bottom-line approach, which adds the concept of social and environmental objectives to the economic ones that seem to be driving government at the moment.

In the case of Molonglo, for example, we would take it back to the drawing board as the community and experts are suggesting. Here is a real opportunity to design from the outset a sustainable city with integrated transport of the future (whether that be light rail or electric buses or something else) education, employment and leisure facilities in harmony with adequately protected woodlands, grasslands, river corridors and all the associated flora, fauna and biodiversity.

Solar, thermal and energy efficient housing with minimum ecological footprint need to be a fundamental part of this planning as do suitable densities around the transport nodes. These concepts need to be looked at on a city wide-scale but this must involve and capture the hearts of the people.

In the case of Gungahlin, we will insist that, if a new ACT government office building is needed, that we build it in Gungahlin. It meets an economic objective in that we are not tying up high-value land in Civic when it could bring a return to the ACT Government. Socially it brings employment to an area that needs it. Environmentally, it potentially reduces journey to work distances.

We wouldn’t advocate moving all ACT Government offices to Gungahlin, as Tuggeranong and Belconnen should also share the spoils.

Clearly this is a decentralised model that is currently out of favour. But it is in line with the essential plans for the ACT and, we believe, is an approach that builds stronger communities as a foundation for a better Canberra - which is what the Community Alliance is all about.

On a final note, the Community Alliance Party wants the input of professional planners into the future development of the ACT. Planners have played a integral role so far, and we have a beautiful city to show for it. Our vision is that qualified and experienced planners will form a partnership with communities and deliver a future for Canberra that puts people and functionality at the fore.