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planning heads in sand over RAIA survey
WIth all this week's fuss about the state of the planning system, one aspect has quite stunned me. Even while Victorian councils admit there are problems with the planning process, the State Minister in charge seems to have shrugged off the RAIA survey.
Statements from Mary Delahunty's office seem to be designed to dismiss and antagonise architects rather than dealing with the problems.
The ministry's reasons for dismissing the survey are, paraphrased from recent news articles:
* the delays are caused by the state building boom (ie the delays are a sign of good government)
* problems are already being dealt with (ie we can sort this out by ourselves - we don't need anyone's advice on this).
* architects only deal with 3% of planning permits (therefore are not a group worth paying much attention to).
* architects should expect problems because of "the nature of their designs".
It reminds me of Mary's "tell them they're dreaming" response to a petition by 100 architects last year. We seem to have a ministry that believes it's in control, but in truth has little idea of what goes on at the coalface.
Statements from Mary Delahunty's office seem to be designed to dismiss and antagonise architects rather than dealing with the problems.
The ministry's reasons for dismissing the survey are, paraphrased from recent news articles:
* the delays are caused by the state building boom (ie the delays are a sign of good government)
* problems are already being dealt with (ie we can sort this out by ourselves - we don't need anyone's advice on this).
* architects only deal with 3% of planning permits (therefore are not a group worth paying much attention to).
* architects should expect problems because of "the nature of their designs".
It reminds me of Mary's "tell them they're dreaming" response to a petition by 100 architects last year. We seem to have a ministry that believes it's in control, but in truth has little idea of what goes on at the coalface.
Comments
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What was the "tell them they're dreaming" bit?
I vaguely remember hearing something about the petition, but must have missed Delahunty's response. -
Bugger, I can't find delahunty on the record anywhere saying whatever it was that got me so pissed off. Maybe it was on the radio... maybe I was dreaming... anyway I unreservedly withdraw that assertion (for the moment)... and here's some more on the petition a year ago:
The letter
http://www.butterpaper.com/resource/news/delahunty_letter.htm
The press release
http://www.butterpaper.com/resource/news/planning_victoria.htm
The news report
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/15/1032054710378.html:
The editorial
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/23/1032734112126.html
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