Page 576 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 1990
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better framed if Mr Moore had wanted to comment seriously on this debate.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (4.50): Mr Speaker, I do not think there is any doubt amongst the members of this Assembly that the current planning and development arrangements are not working effectively, and I think that it is quite clear that the events on the Canberra Times site are an illustration of the difficulties that have been faced. What has happened there is that a developer who, in good faith, wished to invest in that site, and invested some seven and a half million dollars, has not been able to proceed with the development. The work that might have been made available to building industry workers has not been made available. The situation has been dragging on for at least two years now, so I think any talk of a moratorium is a bit of a nonsense. There has been a moratorium de facto since at least June 1988 when the first objections were lodged.
I think that what we need to do now is to have a look at how those difficulties can be overcome and to acknowledge that what is required is planning legislation, a whole package of legislation, so that people, including the developers and the citizens who are concerned, know what is going on.
It has come as a great disappointment to me today, Mr Speaker, to hear from the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister not one word of constructive debate on this issue. What we heard from both of them was mere personal name calling of the member who raised this issue. That is frankly not good enough for people who purport to be a leader and deputy leader of a government. It is disgraceful.
What we have heard from the members opposite is nothing more than some sort of personal defence, and a very defensive approach it has been as well, to what they perceive as a criticism by Mr Moore. They have not addressed the substance of these issues in any way whatsoever. But contrast that with the statements of both of them over the weekend and you will understand why people are quite rightly concerned about this issue. Over the weekend we heard on the media that Mr Kaine was enthusiastic for a surrender and regrant of the lease on this site. We heard from Mr Collaery that he was relaxed about that approach.
What we did not hear, Mr Speaker, was how this Government might put right the uncertainty and the total ambiguity that currently exists about such proposals. Mr Kaine has brought forward two further pieces of draft legislation today concerning inquiries and assessments with proposed developments, and I commend him for that work. So we have at this point about half of the legislation that is required, albeit in draft form. What we do not have is the legislation that is absolutely crucial to resolving this
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