Page 2454 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
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Commercial tenancy - Australian Labor Party - Copy of letter from Spokesperson on Industry to commercial tenants.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (8.19): Mr Acting Speaker, I applaud the initiative of my colleagues on this committee, firstly, in examining the plight of shopkeepers trying to wrestle with a myriad of commercial lease practices - not all entirely fair, I must add - and, secondly, in taking decisive action to introduce a fair trading Act and a code of practice to assist the retail sector in the ACT. The principle of fair trading is something which this Alliance Government considers to be a fundamental aspect of commercial policy. It recognises that there is much which can be done to ensure and maintain a fair market in the ACT.
Mr Acting Speaker, Canberra is unique in Australia in its leasehold and planning system, and this means that the situation faced by commercial tenants in the ACT has required a solution tailored to meet ACT conditions, which it is obvious that the Labor Opposition has not realised. Very recently several tenants in a Kambah shopping centre were exposed to potential ruin as a result of lack of information given to them about restrictions applying to their landlord's lease. The Government acted quickly to remedy that situation, but, for the future, the present initiative of a code of practice for the commercial lease sector, backed by fair trading legislation, will do much to ensure that such problems cannot recur.
The Alliance Government recognises that the expansion of business and the growth of the ACT economy are not impeded, but stimulated, by creative and well-constructed regulation. A measure which promotes fair dealing and discourages anti-competitive practices is a species of regulation which, for this reason, will be welcomed by business and consumers in the ACT. When I say "business", I mean both sides of business - the tenant and the landlord - in the ACT.
The approach decided on by the Government represents a balance between the total regulation of the Victorian model and regulation only by a code of practice, as in New South Wales, which is not wholly compatible with the Canberra leasehold system. This sensible and practical approach, however, preserves the advantages of both by actively involving industry in the process of developing appropriate regulatory mechanisms, thereby ensuring that business will be committed to the code's success, and also by ensuring that the Government can play a role to provide the legal supports for the solution worked out and preferred by industry.
Mr Acting Speaker, again I take this opportunity to congratulate the Government on this initiative - of course, the Opposition is not capable of taking an initiative - and I look forward to the early introduction of the proposed code and the legislation in the coming days.
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