Page 1144 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 1991
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the lease and the period since the lease was granted. But it would take that one step further and provide additional public confidence if the community were to be made aware of the rate of tax struck.
Mr Speaker, again there are some issues that perhaps look a little odd and that are a result of this being an ad hoc Bill, an interim measure to shore up the position until the comprehensive planning legislation is in place. One would wonder perhaps why one goes to the Supreme Court in order to obtain a variation and yet one goes to another tribunal, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, if the rate of betterment is in question. One would wonder why, perhaps, the whole issue might not be dealt with by the AAT, which I understand is the position that will be contemplated under the comprehensive legislation.
Mr Speaker, those criticisms having been placed on record, the Opposition will not be opposing this legislation. It implements a measure that was announced some time ago and that taxation measure is entitled to get through this Assembly; but it does, once again, demonstrate the hollow rhetoric of the Government of some 15 months ago when members were fulminating about the alleged failure of Labor to have a comprehensive planning package in place. We have seen that that is no easy task, and those government members who were then so critical are now having to eat humble pie and acknowledge that they have to shore up the position with interim Bills until the package is ready.
MR JENSEN (11.36): From the outset, let me get one thing well and truly on the record. The Bill that we are debating today will ensure that no rorting of the leasehold system in the period between now and when the new planning legislation takes effect can, in fact, take place. This applies to both the issue of betterment and the issue of concessional leases that I will be talking about later. The Government, might I suggest, has done more in 14 months to tighten up the administration of the leasehold system within the ACT than successive Federal governments did in 14 years, so I think we need to get that well and truly on the record from the start.
Let me now refer very briefly to and deal with the comments made by Mr Connolly in relation to our comments the year before last in relation to the Follett Government. After six months, and after some considerable pushing and a number of questions by me and other members of the Rally at the time, the best that the Follett Labor Government could do was to place on the table a series of incomplete drafting instructions. Two of the major aspects of those drafting instructions were not included; they were the issue of betterment and the issue of an appeals process.
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