When does an endangered tree species trump housing for those in urgent need?
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Or rather, when should the reverse happen?
We saw this decision-making process in action this week, although it was not put in such stark terms.
But when Planning Minister Christ Steel used his controversial call-in powers to approve a development application for more than 1000 new homes in Denman Prospect, he was essentially quashing the concerns of conservation groups about endangered box-gum woodlands in the area.
It will likely be the last time these powers will ever be used; they're part of old ACT planning laws, established as a way for the planning minister to rush through the approval of an already lodged development application, effectively over-ruling any objections to it.
It was always an imperfect clause that could easily serve the whims of the minister of the day.
![Chris Steel has used his controversial call-in powers for the last time. Picture by Karleen Minney Chris Steel has used his controversial call-in powers for the last time. Picture by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9gmjQxX8MpSQh6J68NHMnY/0dde8d56-3044-4a78-b076-add75ac1a1c0.jpg/r0_435_8256_5084_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
But in this case, the powers have been used to address a pressing concern - housing shortages.
Environmental damage through development is a vexed issue, and the ACT has several long-running animal mascots that, while often small and rare, have had an outsize influence on where and how the territory can expand its reach, develop new spaces or proceed with ill-advised building projects.
But we also saw in our pages last week the human face of a very real and pressing issue for Canberra - the lack of public housing.
A single father with four children crammed into an inadequate government-funded home has been on a waiting list for a bigger house for nearly a decade.
It's one of those seemingly simple mathematical equations, until you realise how many obstacles arise on the path to building new homes.
The number of government houses in Canberra has gone down, while the number of those needing them has risen.
But, as has been pointed out by many, the line from need, to intention, to realisation of a solution, is far from straightforward. People need to be moved, houses repaired, demolished, rebuilt.
New housing developments typically materialise at the end of a long development application process, and environmental factors often, rightly or wrongly, slow the process down, often for years at a time.
As Jasper Lindell points out in his analysis, there is general support for the environment, but only up to a point.
If it's a choice between the habitat of "obscure, small animals" and more homes for Canberrans, it's clear on what side most voters will fall.
The ACT Greens are livid they weren't consulted; what has transpired is exactly the scenario environmentalists have long feared, and the reason the powers will soon cease to exist.
But in this case, it's hard to deny the powers have been used for the right reason, and that a kind of balance has been struck.
Endangered box-gum woodlands, pink-tailed worm-lizards and wombats will, under the new approvals, be protected in the development plan, and more people will have access to housing.
Still, the powers have been rightfully dropped in the territory's new planning laws, which came into effect in late November.
But their last hurrah, so to speak, has been in the service of meeting an undeniable and urgent need for more housing in Canberra.
Ironically, the Greens themselves have been particularly vocal on this front, and will have a hard time justifying their opposition to Mr Steel's move.