SHANE Rattenbury says Greens legislation to improve community consultation on developments that may utilise Ministerial call-in powers has passed with unanimous support.

“I have worked closely with the Minister for Planning through this process and I am pleased that we have achieved a result that will improve the process around the use of call-in powers,” Shane said.

“The ACT Greens have long opposed the use of call-in powers but have been unable to gain support for their removal in the Assembly. As such, we will be taking a policy to the 2016 Election that will require call-ins to be a disallowable instrument, ensuring that the Assembly is able to veto Ministerial call-in decisions if necessary.

“While the Greens have long expressed concerns about the use of call-ins, I believe that incorporating a required level of community consultation into the process is a significant improvement on the current system. This consultation can include public meetings, consultation with community councils, letter box drops or other similar processes.

“The Planning and Development (Call In Power) Amendment Bill 2014 as passed today requires that the Planning Minister must be satisfied that sufficient appropriate community consultation was undertaken prior to approving a development utilising call-in powers, as well as whether there was a sufficient level of public awareness of the proposal. If the Minister is not satisfied on these counts, he may direct the developer to undertake further community consultation.

“I also proposed a further amendment that will require the Minister to include a summary of all consultation undertaken – prior to lodging the DA, as well as any further consultation that the Minister directed the developer to undertake.

“The intention of these clauses is to involve the community in the early stages of a development proposal to help the proponent create a development application that better reflects the community’s expectations. My expectation is that this will help alleviate issues in advance, rather than waiting for issues to arise once the development application has been lodged,” Shane concluded.