The report provides 23 recommendations that will help to reduce the ACT and surrounding Capital Region’s currently over-large ecological footprint, and move towards matching the region’s ecological carrying capacity, defined as … the maximum rate of resource consumption and waste discharge that can be sustained indefinitely in a given region without progressively impairing the functional integrity and productivity of relevant ecosystems (Rees, W.E. 1992).

The Report (2385KB) and Discussion Paper are available at: http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/committees/index1.asp?committee=112&inquiry=975&category=19

 … As I said last month when I addressed my fellow heads of government at COAG, there are other places in Australia that deal with cross-border challenges and opportunities, but there’s nowhere that is quite in the position of the ACT – a city-state completely surrounded by another jurisdiction…

Yet when it comes to tax regimes, rates, regulations, even public transport systems, Canberra is the regional service hub for a State of which it is not a part.  And because that regional hub role is going to grow in importance over the coming decades, there’s every reason to get things right and make the relationship work to our mutual benefit…

…One area in which I think there’s scope for greater strategic collaboration is industry and business development, including investment attraction…

…Late last year the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and I signed the ACT-NSW MoU for Regional Collaboration, which sets out our shared vision for regional progress and also specifies some areas for immediate work…

…The idea is to ensure that administrative borders don’t loom so large in our policy thinking, letting us focus on other things….

…Importantly, the MoU is predicated on the involvement of the ACT, Southern Inland and Far South Coast RDAs.

 The ACT-NSW MoU identifies three areas where the Premier and I would like to see some swift action:

• We’d like a strategic regional directions statement;
• We want a shared view of planning and infrastructure requirements, expressedthrough a strategic land use and infrastructure plan – including a mechanism to fairly apportion costs; and
• We’ve asked for an integrated service planning framework that initially looks athealth and education.

Strong words by the ACT Chief Minister on her government’s desire to build a cohesive region with a collective direction.

Aside from the Chief Minister, guest presenters to the conference included:

• Garry Bowditch, Chief Executive Officer, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong;
• Stephen Byron, Managing Director, Canberra Airport;
• Dr David Adams, Director of Economics, AECOM; and
• David Ireland, Executive Manager – Precincts and Innovation Systems, CSIRO

and covered a range of session themes including:

• Population futures – analysing the economic and social impacts;
• Infrastructure planning; and
• Innovation and investment.

The Chief Minister’s opening address can be found HERE.

There is no charge to attend these CURF quarterly seminars, but if you are keen to attend, please RSVP by email  for catering purposes by Thursday17 May 2012 or phone 61250633.

Seminar Details:

Date: Monday 21 May 2012

Time: 5.30-7pm, followed by refreshments.

Location: Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 1, Cnr Liversidge St and Garran Rd, Australian National University

A seminar flyer is also available on the CURF website.

The Strategy:

… will help guide the future growth of our economy, and sets out numerous initiatives to encourage economic growth and diversification of the economy, and contribute to job growth …

The significant new actions in the Strategy include:

• Cutting payroll tax and increasing the threshold at which businesses start to pay payroll tax.

… This will give Canberra businesses a tax cut and ensure the ACT has one of Australia’s most competitive payroll tax regimes. Further details will be announced in the June Budget …

• Create a Red Tape Reduction Taskforce

… to identify, remove and improve outdated, unworkable and illogical business regulations …

• Procurement changes

Introduce a new evaluation criteria for all goods and services tenders that puts a weighting against whether the tenderer is a local small or medium sized enterprise (SME) and/or their involvement with local businesses

It is unclear whether a definition has been put around ‘local SMEs’. We await clarification as to whether that might include ‘regional’ businesses.

A range of additional initiatives have also been noted including:

• Providing new funding for clean tech and sustainability oriented companies, and provide new funding for major proposals on new innovation infrastructure,
• Creating a My Digital City Innovation Prize, to encourage tertiary students and all interested Canberrans in the development of new digital government services (a Canberra Business Council idea),
• Providing an extra $500,000 to the Canberra Business Development Fund,
• Continuing (and increasing) the funding for the CollabIT Cluster to help small and medium sized enterprises in the ICT sector.

The Strategy can be found HERE (pdf download), or can be read online at Scribd.

“While we have always played an important role in the region we now need to concentrate on our regional future as a real priority,” the Chief Minister said.

“I believe there is potential for using our significant collective regional scale to get greater value for the ratepayer dollars we individually spend on our separate service-related contracts and separate procurement processes.

“Imagine some of the efficiencies and cost benefits that could be achieved for the region with Canberra acting in partnership with our regional neighbours and not just as smaller individual jurisdictions.” 

Importantly, the Chief Minister highlighted the recent decision to join the South East (NSW) Regional Organisation of Councils (SEROC)

“Bringing Canberra to the regional table at our first South East Regional Organisation of Councils meeting in two weeks’ time is a great step to progressing the work many of our neighbours have started already.  I’d like to explore the possibilities further and I will seek SEROC’s agreement to progress this work urgently,” the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said, in addition to its roles as national capital and home to 360,000 people, Canberra played an important role as a the economic and social hub of south-east New South Wales.

“Cross-border communities need to work collaboratively to get maximum bang for their buck via agreed infrastructure investment requirements, good data collection, even joint submissions to competitive funding programs,” the Chief Minister said

“Value for investment will be crucial as this region’s population grows. By 2031 Canberra’s population of 360,000 will be closer to 460,000. The combined population of the 17 regional councils will reach 750,000.

“Inevitably, the ACT’s long-term planning has to include the region.  Increasingly I believe we must speak with a ‘regional’ voice as 600,000 Australians, rather than as individual communities separated by distance and divided by state borders.

“Building up our region, supporting well-planned services and infrastructure and looking for efficiencies in the way we work regardless of what part of South-East NSW we live in will benefit all of us in the long term,” the Chief Minister concluded.

It is encouraging to hear the leader of the ACT Government espousing the views and ideas already espoused by the RDA ACT over the past several years, and articulated most recently through the ACT Strategic Regional Plan.

The full ACT Government Media Release can be found HERE.

The following is an extract from the Minister’s Media Release.

The ACT Government’s large scale solar plan has received strong interest from the renewable energy industry with the government receiving 49 separate prequalification proposals as part of a request for proposals to deliver a large scale solar facility in the Territory, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, announced today….

 … among the 49 prequalification proposals there are a range of options to deliver the large scale solar project, including different types of solar technology and different generation capacity proposals…

 ”Solar has to be at the centre of any sustainable energy strategy in the ACT and it is the Labor Government that has a clear, legislated plan, to ensure that we move towards cleaner alternatives to power our city into the future”…

…The request for proposals process is being conducted in two stages. A prequalification stage will shortlist proponents with the best capacity and track record to deliver the project. Prequalified proponents will then be invited to compete to provide solar energy to the Territory.

Prequalified proponents may participate in a fast track process to determine up to 20 megawatts of entitlements in mid 2012 and/or a regular track process to grant the remainder of the 40 megawatts of capacity release in early 2013.

The full media release can be found HERE.

RDA ACT’s submission to the ACT Government on its Draft Action Plan 2 -Weathering the Change - the ACT’s Climate Change Strategy, suggests new and endorses other strategies in support of the ACT Government’s target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% (on 1990 levels) by 2020, and becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

RDA ACT agrees that measures such as promoting energy efficient buildings, sustainable transport and sustainable waste need to be part of the mix in achieving GHG reduction targets, but also supports a focus on increasing the supply and uptake of renewable energy in a regional context as a particularly effective sustainability measure.

Read the full RDA ACT submission:   RDA ACT submission and

the RDA ACT Chair’s accompanying letter:  RDA ACT submission Cover Letter.

“The site takes a case management approach to community engagement.  This means that the public can remain informed of the progress and outcomes of a consultation throughout its duration,” Ms Gallagher said.

Progress reports will be able be viewed at various stages during a consultation, including summaries of any feedback received. Posting final reports and findings will be an essential element of the case management approach.

Depending on the nature of the engagement, the site provides a variety of ways to provide feedback.  These include sending a written or online submission, being involved in an online discussion, completing an online survey, or taking part in a Twitter or Facebook conversation.

The site will contain information about community forums and meetings, and development applications. It will also display events that appear in The Canberra Times’ Community Noticeboard in calendar format.

Originally posted on Time to Talk website 09 March 2012

The South East Region of Renewable Energy Excellence (SERREE) is being progressed by a collaborative network that includes Regional Development Australia ACT, Southern Inland (SI) and Far South Coast (FSC), and representatives from both NSW  and ACT government agencies. It also includes a broad partnership of the region’s key public and private stakeholders in the area of renewable energy across industry, government and community.

For more information, view the SERREE Project Brief here.

RDA ACT, while recognising the significance the Draft Planning Strategy places on the value and importance of the ACT’s place and role in the region, has identified scope to further develop the regional perspective within this document.

To read the full RDA ACT submission to the ACT Draft Planning Strategy, click here.

The link to the ACT Draft Planning Strategy is here.

]]> http://rdaact.org.au/2012/02/rda-act-submission-act-draft-planning-strategy/feed/ 0