Planning Minister Mick Gentleman has used his call-in powers for the first time, forcing through a proposed indigenous drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in the Tidbinbilla valley.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
His move on Wednesday night to approve the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm puts an end to appeals.
It follows a legal battle at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal earlier this year and has left opponents of the proposal stunned.
Resident Michael Shanahan said the government was "not playing cricket" and was denying opponents natural justice.
ACT Rural Landholders Association president Tom Allen was bitterly disappointed.
This is the first time Mr Gentleman has used his call-in powers since he became planning minister in July, and it has left opponents of another controversial development, the Uriarra solar farm, worried about whether that project will be allowed to run its course. Mr Gentleman said he planned to keep his use of call-in powers "to a minimum", and he argued they had been used sparingly by the government, 15 times since 2009.
The long-running planning process has been controversial. Two development applications were submitted by the government – one to change the lease and another for the development. Objections were received to both. The application to vary the lease went to the tribunal, where the government was successful.
The tribunal noted the uncomfortable position in which the government had placed it.
"The tribunal finds itself in a difficult position," it said in its judgement. "It is being asked to review a decision to vary the lease … but is not asked to review the development proposal itself."
The ACT government committed $10.8 million to the project in November 2007. Since then, the retreat, which aims to reconnect Aboriginal people to their land and culture as part of drug and alcohol therapy, has hit snags.
In 2008, two potential sites were deemed unsuitable by the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, before Miowera, a rural lease, was bought.
Mr Gentleman defended his decision to call in the project, saying it had been in train a long time and should be allowed to begin as soon as possible. The application had originally been requested from the department by Mr Corbell and had come to him when he became planning minister, he said. Chief Minister Katy Gallagher✓ confirmed she had asked the planning minister to consider calling in the project after the first application had been determined through the tribunal.
The eight-bed facility will include two residential "pods", plus a communal and administration building.
Mr Gentleman said it would be free of drugs and alcohol, with a strong focus on Aboriginal spirituality and culture, and on agriculture and connection to the land – deliberately sited away from the "distractions of the city". The approval required a bridge crossing over a stream off Paddys River Road to be strengthened to take 28-tonne trucks, and a bushfire plan.
In July, the residents of Uriarra village welcomed Mr Gentleman's appointment as Planning Minister to replace Simon Corbell, hoping it would signal a different approach to the solar farm siting, given Mr Corbell's strong advocacy as the minister responsible.
But Wednesday's decision by Mr Gentleman to call in the healing farm has left them nervous.
"Anything to do with the government calling anything in at the moment makes us concerned," resident Jess Agnew said. "If the call-in powers are used for the Uriarra solar farm, it would go to show that this thing's in the bag from day one and nothing we have said would have had any impact."
The government used the controversial call-in powers to approve the territory's first solar farm at Royallalast year.
The decision comes after the Greens' Shane Rattenbury introduced legislation that would limit the use of call-in powers – allowing them to be used only if the community has been consulted before a development application is lodged. His legislation is yet to be debated by the Assembly, and he said while he supported the healing farm, he was "uncomfortable" with the call in.