By Catherine Carter
ONE of the most important aspects of the Commonwealth Parliament’s committee report on the national capital is the recognition that funding cuts to the National Capital Authority went too deep.
The committee chair, ACT Senator Kate Lundy, when announcing the report, acknowledged the problems caused by the cuts to the NCA budget earlier this year and urged the Government to reinstate some of the funding.
“There’s no doubt the cuts have impacted on the way the NCA performs its role and that’s why we’ve recommended some of the funding be restored to allow it to play the roles that the committee believes are important and appropriate, particularly for the central national area of Canberra,” she said.
Importantly, the report contains a strong recommendation that funding for the Griffin Legacy road infrastructure upgrade to Constitution Avenue be restored. In February, $46.3 million was taken from the Federal Budget for this work. In cutting the Griffin Legacy funding, the Federal Government halted much-needed infrastructure work.
The report is detailed and strongly reinforces the need for Commonwealth Government commitment to Canberra, and planning for the nation’s capital.
The report recommends collaboration and a co-operative approach to planning between the Federal and ACT Governments and their respective agencies, and the development of a single, integrated planning document for the capital.
Inevitably, integrating the respective documents will be a fairly massive undertaking, bearing in mind that the rewrite of the Territory Plan alone took a staggering four years. Preparing such a document will also require further consultation with industry and the community.
There are a range of other recommendations that will require detailed analysis and the Government should not rush into implementation of this report in its entirety.
For example, the proposed transfer of planning responsibility from the NCA into the Territory planning system. The ACT Planning and Land Authority and the referral agencies have already come under fire for significant planning delays and bottlenecks. Additional responsibilities will only exacerbate the problem. It’s simply bad timing to give those ACT agencies with planning responsibilities additional work when they can’t deal in a timely manner with the existing demands.

Catherine Carter is executive director of the Property Council of Australia (ACT).