Planning Minister John Day said today the Liberal-National Government was firmly committed to the Electronic Land Development Project (ELDP) system, which would allow electronic submissions of subdivision applications.

“The Liberal-National Government has budgeted nearly $3.3million in 2009-10 towards progressing the development of an ELDP system,” Mr Day said.

“The ELDP system will provide facilities for approvals online, to replace current inefficient paper-based processes and reduce the time taken to process land approvals. It will also link agencies and local government.

“But what this State Government will not do is proceed with the previous government’s reckless approach to ELDP. The Liberal-National Government will implement an ELDP system in a much more responsible way.”

The Minister said that serious problems became evident in the tender process embarked on by the previous Labor government.

“The tender process that was put out in the second half of 2007 resulted in a very broad range of tender prices ranging between $6.5million and $19million,” he said.

“Also, high contingency and risk factors were applied by the proposed vendors, and no guarantees were provided from any of them that the price would not increase as the project progressed.

“In other words, the results of the tender process under the previous government were just far too risky for this Government and the taxpayer. It needed to be a lot more defined.

“Clearly, the previous Labor government realised its approach to the ELDP project was terribly flawed, which would explain why the project wasn’t progressed before last year’s State election.

“The budget allocation that the Liberal-National Government has made will allow for a high-level design and solutions options process, which will provide a much clearer understanding of what the system should be and how it should be put in place.

“Once that has been defined, the Department for Planning and Infrastructure will go back to Treasury to request the appropriate amount of funding to allow an ELDP system to be established.”

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