Shadow Minister for Planning and Land Management, Peter Cain, has called on the Planning Minister to keep his word and release the finalised new Territory Plan and District Strategies.

Mr Cain questioned why the finalised versions of the proposed planning reforms are yet to be published, despite the Planning Minister previously claiming that these reforms were due for release by July 2023.

“Where are the finalised District Strategies and the new Territory Plan?” Mr Cain asked.

“The Planning Minister told the Legislative Assembly during the Planning Bill 2022 debate on 1 June 2023 that finalising the Territory Plan and the District Strategies is the next step once the bill passes and that, I quote, ‘we will do this in the next month’.

“June has come and gone. July has come and gone. It is now August, and we still have no indication of when these reforms will be finalised and released to the public.

“It is the community and industry stakeholders who lose out the most because of this uncertainty.”

“We all need time to analyse and assess these important planning reforms to see how they will affect how residents live, how businesses operate and how suburbs look.”

“Furthermore, we have yet to receive any updates on the interim Territory Plan that is supposedly due to come into effect in September,” Mr Cain continued.

“How is Canberra’s building and construction sector meant to adjust to a new set of rules and regulations when there is only four weeks until it comes into effect, and we haven’t seen it?”

“How are Canberra’s residents meant to inform themselves of how their houses, streets and suburbs will be affected by new reforms when they are given no time to process them?”

“These reforms are too important to the new planning system to continue to be unavailable to the public,” Mr Cain concluded.