Independent Fiona Carrick: Was the budget realistic? Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The ACT Government has dropped the idea of an independent planning and advisory service to help community groups navigate the system and development applications after two tenders failed to attract any interest.
But Independent MLA Fiona Carrick has questioned whether the $255,000 allocated in the 2023-24 Budget was adequate.
The proposed service was to sit in the Justice and Community Safety (JACS) Directorate, separate from City and Environment.
Greens MLA Jo Clay raised the issue in Budget Estimates, asking Attorney-General Tara Cheyne what had happened to the proposal after the unsuccessful tender last May.
“That’s effectively been abandoned,” Ms Cheyne said. “There were two tender processes and both failed to have anyone tender for them.
“There’s only so many times you can try when you have that sort of funding available. And without an appropriate service offering coming forward, I think it’s a bit foolish for us to just keep trying.”
Ms Cheyne could not say if there had been any issues with the tenders.
“By not receiving any tenders, we don’t have anyone to ask,” she said.
Ms Clay pressed the minister on whether she had any discussions with the free heritage advisory service provided by Phillip Leeson Architects or any other service to understand if there had been a problem with the proposed structure or the funding.
Ms Cheyne said she did not know, given she had inherited the issue when she became Attorney-General last year.
JACS official Nadia Marjan said there had been a number of consultation activities to understand community need and what could be useful for those who would access the proposed service.
“Certainly there was some work done and also additional work done by consultants for the ACT Government to really assist in co-designing what this process could look like or what the service could look like,” she said.
“As the minister outlined, unfortunately we did not receive any responses to the tenders.”
Ms Marjan told Ms Carrick that the $255,000 was allocated over two years and there was also provisioned funding for a further two years subject to a review.
Ms Carrick questioned whether that was enough to resource such a service.
“Is it realistic to think that anybody can provide that service for $255,000 because that might be two people … people out there like to have a reliable service where people answer the phone or do whatever they do,” she said.
“$255,000, it’s maybe not even a realistic price to ask people to do it for.”
Ms Marjan said the funding was a matter for government but the service was also seen as a pilot to test the need for it and then go from there.
In April last year, the Inner South Canberra Community Council (ISCCC) made a submission in support of the proposed service, stressing it would need to be properly resourced to be effective.
ISCCC chair Colin Walters told Region the council hoped the government would take a look at why the tender failed and keep going with the idea.
“We stand by what was in our submission, we support the proposal,” he said.
On the minister saying the idea had been abandoned, Mr Walters said: “That’s a matter for regret, but we hope they’ll reconsider.”
Ms Clay said with a new planning system, and ongoing complaints about delays and complexity, the need for such a service would be even greater.
