MEDIA RELEASE

New inquiry into the Territory Plan

A new committee inquiry into the proposed Territory Plan was announced in the Legislative Assembly today.

The Chair of the Standing Committee on Planning, Transport and City Services (the Committee), Ms Jo Clay MLA, said “The Committee will be reviewing the proposed Territory Plan and its supporting documents such as design guides and planning technical specifications.

“Scrutiny on a major project like this is extremely important. The ACT Government received a large volume of feedback during the consultation period, which included over 1,700 responses from the community. The Committee has received all those pieces of feedback and will consider them as part of this inquiry.

“The Committee is incredibly grateful to the community for dedicating so much of their time already to the Planning Review. The Committee is keen to ensure this project receives ample scrutiny whilst reducing the burden on the community wherever possible. For this reason, the Committee invites Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to appear at the public hearings rather than full written submissions.

“Where members of the community have something additional to say that was not covered in an earlier written submission to ACT Government, can be included in the EOIs. Otherwise, the Committee warmly welcomes brief EOIs setting out who the submitter is, whether they are writing as an individual or on behalf of an organisation, and why they would like to speak to the Committee.”

EOIs of no more than 2 pages should be sent to LACommitteePTCS@parliament.act.gov.au. EOIs are open until Friday, 27 October 2023. Please note that, whilst the Committee endeavours to hear from as many stakeholders as possible, an EOI will not automatically guarantee a place at the public hearings.

The Terms of Reference for the inquiry are available on the Committee’s webpage.

Public hearings will be conducted on Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 December 2023.

The Committee will report back to the Assembly by Monday, 11 March 2024.

Terms of Reference Inquiry into the Territory Plan and other associated documents That the Standing Committee on Planning, Transport and City Services inquire into the Territory Plan as per its statutory obligations, along with the Territory Plan’s supporting documents such as the design guides and planning technical specifications. This includes: a. What the policy goals are for the new system and whether the new system is able to meet these goals; and b. How Variation 369 and the ACT Government’s commitments to living infrastructure targets are embedded in the Territory Plan, as per the Committee’s earlier commitment to inquire into its implementation within 12-18 months of its commencement.

14 September 2023

STATEMENT ENDS.

Committee Chair, Ms Jo Clay MLA on (02) 6205 0131

A/g Committee Secretary, Ms Miona Ikeda on (02) 6205 0199 or at LACommitteePTCS@parliament.act.gov.au