Mr GILES - 2009-11-26
In your last response, you said you are working on the supply side of land release. However, yesterday, in response to the opposition’s censure motion, you said:
Exactly when will the Lands minister release the rezoning proposal? Further, how much is in the forward estimates, and what is the time frame for the headworks and other infrastructure necessary to expedite this housing development? When will the first block be turned off?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for his question. It is a good question. The Minister for Planning and Lands has a very good answer for it. I will hand it to her.
Ms LAWRIE (Planning and Lands): Madam Speaker, I welcome the question. The CLP never asks me questions, even if it is directly in my portfolio. They will skip around anywhere else but ask me the question. You wonder why!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, the Northern Territory government has a very progressive approach to land release in Alice Springs, in contrast to the CLP. Under the CLP, Alice Springs became landlocked - for a very good reason. They refused to negotiate with the native title holders of Alice Springs. They stuck their head in the sand and they would not negotiate with the Lhere Artepe. In stark contrast, Labor came to government, recognised the need for land supply in Alice Springs, and immediately went in to negotiations with the Lhere Artepe to turn off land in Alice Springs.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: We negotiated the first Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the Lhere Artepe, which is Larapinta, which has seen Stirling Heights and Ridges Estate turning off in Alice Springs. We continued negotiations with Lhere Artepe, which is providing for Mt Johns Valley. Stage 1 of Mt Johns Valley was very successful at sale. We are negotiating Stage 2 release of Mt Johns Valley. The future yield of Mt Johns Valley is around 700 lots. It is a critically important land release for Alice Springs.
We did not rest there. We held a planning forum for Alice Springs, with the people of Alice Springs, where 120 people attended. We took them through all the land supply options for Alice Springs, including the costings of headworks, down to the detail of what it would cost to turn that off per lot. Out of that came the idea, and the priority set by the people of Alice Springs, to turn off land south of The Gap, at AZRI.
That is a remarkable change, if you like, in the growth thinking and growth plans, in a planning sense, for Alice Springs. It was a change because we provided the people with Alice Springs with the real information.
Mr TOLLNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister feels it is her need to reinvent history, but she fails to answer the question. The question is very clear: when will AZRI be released, blocks turned off, what about the forward estimates? Answer the question …
Ms Lawrie: I am getting to it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, there is no point of order …
Mr TOLLNER: Do not take a piece of history and change it to suit your socialist views …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, resume your seat.
Ms LAWRIE: The planning forum set the priority of AZRI, and in there was provided the headworks details. We have been on the public record on that; it is on the DPI planning site. If the CLP was not so lazy, they could get this information by simply going to, the DPI website. The headworks for AZRI will cost in the vicinity of $20m to $30m. That estimate is based on the advice from Opus Qantec McWilliam.
In terms of the planning for AZRI, I established an Alice Springs Planning Advisory Committee, co-chaired by the Mayor, Damien Ryan, and the Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, including Alice Springs stakeholders. Because it was such a dramatic change in the planning for growth of Alice Springs to go south of The Gap, I wanted a local planning advisory committee to steer that through in terms of their advice. I put the planning proposal for AZRI’s rezoning to the planning committee. They approved it. It is going on public exhibition tomorrow and will remain on public exhibition until 22 January. I invite everyone in the Chamber today to look at that and to put in their submissions.
We genuinely need to hear from the people of Alice Springs on the AZRI subdivision. As you have heard from the Chief Minister, up to 1200 lots are to be released there. As the minister, and as the Treasurer, I am prepared to develop AZRI. We have been going down this path to do that. We want to hear, finally and reasonably, from the people of Alice Springs as to whether they want to head south of The Gap to that extent …
Mr GILES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I asked when will the first blocks be turned off. I hope the minister can answer that.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms LAWRIE: He does not understand the process. Public exhibition is a statutory requirement. It starts tomorrow and closes on 22 January. That will then be heard by the Development Consent Authority in Alice Springs. They will then provide a report to the Planning minister. I am hopeful that will go through, because I want to get on with developing at AZRI. It is a decision, fundamentally, to be made by the people of Alice Springs by their submissions to the DCA. I sincerely encourage you to put in your submissions. The exhibition opens tomorrow; submissions close 22 January …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A block cannot be turned off, you fool, until the people of Alice have said that is they want to do and we change the planning scheme.
- The Lands minister is going to release, very soon, a rezoning proposal for the AZRI site to release up to 1000 blocks of land.
Exactly when will the Lands minister release the rezoning proposal? Further, how much is in the forward estimates, and what is the time frame for the headworks and other infrastructure necessary to expedite this housing development? When will the first block be turned off?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for his question. It is a good question. The Minister for Planning and Lands has a very good answer for it. I will hand it to her.
Ms LAWRIE (Planning and Lands): Madam Speaker, I welcome the question. The CLP never asks me questions, even if it is directly in my portfolio. They will skip around anywhere else but ask me the question. You wonder why!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, the Northern Territory government has a very progressive approach to land release in Alice Springs, in contrast to the CLP. Under the CLP, Alice Springs became landlocked - for a very good reason. They refused to negotiate with the native title holders of Alice Springs. They stuck their head in the sand and they would not negotiate with the Lhere Artepe. In stark contrast, Labor came to government, recognised the need for land supply in Alice Springs, and immediately went in to negotiations with the Lhere Artepe to turn off land in Alice Springs.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: We negotiated the first Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the Lhere Artepe, which is Larapinta, which has seen Stirling Heights and Ridges Estate turning off in Alice Springs. We continued negotiations with Lhere Artepe, which is providing for Mt Johns Valley. Stage 1 of Mt Johns Valley was very successful at sale. We are negotiating Stage 2 release of Mt Johns Valley. The future yield of Mt Johns Valley is around 700 lots. It is a critically important land release for Alice Springs.
We did not rest there. We held a planning forum for Alice Springs, with the people of Alice Springs, where 120 people attended. We took them through all the land supply options for Alice Springs, including the costings of headworks, down to the detail of what it would cost to turn that off per lot. Out of that came the idea, and the priority set by the people of Alice Springs, to turn off land south of The Gap, at AZRI.
That is a remarkable change, if you like, in the growth thinking and growth plans, in a planning sense, for Alice Springs. It was a change because we provided the people with Alice Springs with the real information.
Mr TOLLNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister feels it is her need to reinvent history, but she fails to answer the question. The question is very clear: when will AZRI be released, blocks turned off, what about the forward estimates? Answer the question …
Ms Lawrie: I am getting to it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, there is no point of order …
Mr TOLLNER: Do not take a piece of history and change it to suit your socialist views …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, resume your seat.
Ms LAWRIE: The planning forum set the priority of AZRI, and in there was provided the headworks details. We have been on the public record on that; it is on the DPI planning site. If the CLP was not so lazy, they could get this information by simply going to, the DPI website. The headworks for AZRI will cost in the vicinity of $20m to $30m. That estimate is based on the advice from Opus Qantec McWilliam.
In terms of the planning for AZRI, I established an Alice Springs Planning Advisory Committee, co-chaired by the Mayor, Damien Ryan, and the Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, including Alice Springs stakeholders. Because it was such a dramatic change in the planning for growth of Alice Springs to go south of The Gap, I wanted a local planning advisory committee to steer that through in terms of their advice. I put the planning proposal for AZRI’s rezoning to the planning committee. They approved it. It is going on public exhibition tomorrow and will remain on public exhibition until 22 January. I invite everyone in the Chamber today to look at that and to put in their submissions.
We genuinely need to hear from the people of Alice Springs on the AZRI subdivision. As you have heard from the Chief Minister, up to 1200 lots are to be released there. As the minister, and as the Treasurer, I am prepared to develop AZRI. We have been going down this path to do that. We want to hear, finally and reasonably, from the people of Alice Springs as to whether they want to head south of The Gap to that extent …
Mr GILES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I asked when will the first blocks be turned off. I hope the minister can answer that.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms LAWRIE: He does not understand the process. Public exhibition is a statutory requirement. It starts tomorrow and closes on 22 January. That will then be heard by the Development Consent Authority in Alice Springs. They will then provide a report to the Planning minister. I am hopeful that will go through, because I want to get on with developing at AZRI. It is a decision, fundamentally, to be made by the people of Alice Springs by their submissions to the DCA. I sincerely encourage you to put in your submissions. The exhibition opens tomorrow; submissions close 22 January …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A block cannot be turned off, you fool, until the people of Alice have said that is they want to do and we change the planning scheme.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016