20 February 2009

Planning slashed to sluice the stimulus

| johnboy
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Andrew Barr has announced that he’s removing any planning barriers that might be hindering the spending off all the stimulus money before they hit the bottom of the barrel and the real pain begins.

    “I was pleased to be able to tell today’s meeting that the ACT Government will alter planning regulations to ensure schools can start building as soon as possible, to deliver better facilities for all students and to protect the jobs of Canberrans…

    “This is not business as usual. We have a very short timeframe in which to make sure ACT students get the most from Federal Labor’s historic investment in schools, and to ensure the package is effective in protecting the jobs of Canberrans,” Mr Barr said.

UPDATED: Zed is pointing fingers and making the argument this shows how poor the standard planning processes are.

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proofpositive, you’ve just made a mockery of your name. The Greens have said that Stanhope should use the planning system properly, and not bypass them

Just another sleazy anti-green statement by proofpositive which is totally false.

Your retraction is awaited but not expected.

Oh, and one also wouldn’t want to discount the fact that Labor has a large political base in the construction industry 🙂

There’s a few reasons why so much of the stimulus package, including the school infrastructure portion, is aimed at the construction industry. It is assumed (and this assumption may or may not turn out to be true) that we will soon have plenty of spare capacity in the construction sector, so construction will come comparatively cheaply – more bang for the buck.

It’s also because construction spending has a higher multiplier effect than spending on, say, mostly imported PCs and software.

grunge_hippy said :

its a crock of shit. you cant spend the money on what you want for your school, its has to be for “infrastructure”. i.e buildings.

so the computers we are using from the early 90’s will continue to sit gathering dust because they are too old to use.

early 90’s??

you are kidding, right?

I thought intact refreshed every 12-months…

unless the school is an independent or CEO controlled, in which case, all bets are off.

grunge_hippy said :

its a crock of shit. you cant spend the money on what you want for your school, its has to be for “infrastructure”. i.e buildings.

so the computers we are using from the early 90’s will continue to sit gathering dust because they are too old to use.

I’m sorry grunge_hippy but any criticism of the specific provisions of the stimulus package will be taken as an argument against having a stimulus package, and that’s just uneconomical!

There is a long list of no-nos regarding state school spending. Our school’s classrooms are like little hot-boxes on warm days, yet evap cooling/air conditioning is off the list (the local Catholic school now has cooling in every classroom). This isn’t for environmental purposes, as water tanks and solar panels appear to be off the list too (not ‘infrastructure’ per se). Surely those tradespeople and airconditioning sellers deserve as much ‘stimulous’ as carpenters and builders?

If your school isn’t at max-capacity, then you can’t actually build anything at all. There is a huge rush to get the wish-lists in by today (I think the schools had about a week’s notice to compile their dream-sheet) – so obviously the Principles won’t have had any time to consult P&Cs, discuss at school meetings etc….

My understanding is that a DA is used to approve (or otherwise) development that is likely to contravene planning guidelines… I hardly think building new infrastructure on a site zoned as a school is likely to contravene any planning guidelines. IMHO a pretty good judgement on the part of the ACT Govt…

grunge_hippy9:26 pm 19 Feb 09

its a crock of shit. you cant spend the money on what you want for your school, its has to be for “infrastructure”. i.e buildings.

so the computers we are using from the early 90’s will continue to sit gathering dust because they are too old to use.

proofpositive6:19 pm 19 Feb 09

Thumper the Krudd apologist

proofpositive5:33 pm 19 Feb 09

And the greens are less than useless, so much for their “third party insurance” role.

And out the window goes all the checks and balances that once were built into the planning system. A free-for-all. But what’s different about this Stanhope govt to the last majority one? Not a lot.

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