Australian Capital Territory
Planning and Development (Existing Schools) Declaration 2009 (No 1)
Notifiable instrument NI2009–353
made under the
Planning and Development Regulation 2008, schedule 1, section 1.96A (1)(b)(iii) (Exempt developments – schools)
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

On 3 February 2009, the Commonwealth announced a $14.7b Building the Education Revolution funding package which is a component of the $42b Nation Building and Jobs Plan (the Commonwealth Plan), which is providing a stimulus to the national economy to mitigate the effects of the current global financial crisis and economic downturn. The funding for the Commonwealth Plan is the subject of the Commonwealth’s Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Act (No. 2) 2008-2009. 

The ACT Government has also allocated significant additional stimulus funding in its Capital Works Program for various school projects to help counter the effects of the economic downturn on the ACT economy, and to deliver improved educational facilities to ACT schools. 

Among the projects to be funded are P-10 schools (i.e. schools catering for preschool to year 10 on the one campus) to be built at Harrison and Kambah. The Government previously announced these new schools as part of the Towards 2020: Renewing our schools program, which is bringing significant reform to the ACT’s public education system, and will ensure access to a range of high quality public schools for Canberra students. The Government’s ‘Towards 2020’ initiative and the decision to build the Harrison and Kambah P-10 schools has been the subject of extensive community consultation.

Under the Government’s Capital Works Program $43.5 million has been allocated for Harrison High School (i.e. the year 7-10 component, which is the second stage of the P-10 school), and $50 million to the Tuggeranong P-10 School at Kambah.

Schedule 1, section 1.96A (1)(b)(iii) of the Planning and Development Regulation 2008 provides that the Minister for Planning may declare certain land to be an existing school. This notifiable instrument declares the Tuggeranong P-10 school (the former Kambah High School site) and the Harrison P-10 school (the Harrison High School component of that school) to be existing schools for the purposes of the Regulation.

The effect of this declaration is that the declared schools are subject to the exemptions provided in Division 1.3.6A of schedule 1 of the Regulation. In addition, if the Chief Minister declares the program under which the work is carried out to be a declared funding program under s406 of the Regulation, the limited public notification provisions and exemption from third party merit review provided for by schedule 2, items 7 and 8 of the Regulation will also apply.