Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

This led the Commission to define sustainable development as:development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability offuture generations to meet their own needs. 393In the foreword to the Brundtland Commission’s report, the Chair described the importanceof understanding the true nature of ‘environment’ and ‘development’:The environment does not exist as a sphere separate from human actions, ambitions,and needs, and attempts to defend it in isolation from human concerns have given thevery word "environment" a connotation of naivety in some political circles. The word"development" has also been narrowed by some into a very limited focus, along thelines of "what poor nations should do to become richer", and thus again isautomatically dismissed by many in the international arena as being a concern ofspecialists, of those involved in questions of "development assistance".But the "environment" is where we all live; and "development" is what we all do inattempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable. 394While expressed in many ways, sustainability has three key components:• recognition of the interdependence of social, economic and environmental well-being;• a focus on equity and fairness, and the need to take account of the effect of our actions onothers in an interdependent world; and• recognition that meeting the needs of today must not be at the expense of futuregenerations being able to meet their needs.The ACT Government’s approach to sustainability is set out in its key policy document,People, Place, Prosperity which adopts the Brundtland Commission’s definition ofsustainability. The policy states:In order to fulfill our role effectively in creating a sustainable future, the ACTGovernment has adopted an understanding of sustainability that recognises the needfor a long-term perspective, the need for responsibilities and benefits to be sharedequitably, and the interdependence of our economy, environment and society. 395Similarly, Section 9 of the Planning and Development Act 2007 396 provides:sustainable development means the effective integration of social, economic andenvironmental considerations in decision-making processes, achievable throughimplementation of the following principles:(a)(b)the precautionary principle;the inter-generational equity principle;393 United Nations (1987) Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development.http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm394 United Nations (1987)395 ACT Government (2009c) People, Place, Prosperity: The ACT’s Sustainability Policy 2009. Canberra, p.2.396 See http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/2007-24/default.aspSustainability, Housing Affordability and Transport: 296