Page 1585 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I invited Norm Jensen, the ACT Government spokesperson on planning, to join me - the Alliance spokesperson on planning - but unfortunately he wasn't able to do that, saying that he was the chair of the planning committee in the ACT and that this matter may be referred to that particular committee and he felt that it would be inappropriate for him to comment at this stage on the proposal to sell school sites.
He was quite right to say that.
Ms Follett: He had a conflict of interest.
MR BERRY: He had a conflict of interest. Mr Speaker, I will draw to your attention another matter which confirms the conflict of interest. I have in front of me a letter to a constituent under the letterhead of the Australian Capital Territory, Office of the Chief Minister. Guess who it is signed by; it is signed by Norm Jensen, MLA, Executive Deputy assisting the Chief Minister on the environment, land and planning.
Mr Connolly: Office of the Chief Minister.
MR BERRY: It is from the Office of the Chief Minister. Will you deny now, Mr Jensen, that your chairmanship of these committees was, in fact, a conflict of interest? No, you will not deny it, because there is a conflict of interest. It is clear that there is a conflict of interest. It is a government report; it is a rush job.
I will just touch on a few of the points that were raised in the additional comments that were placed with the report by Labor Party members. I think the first issue that we should accept is that Canberrans are justly proud of this planned city, and the leasehold system has provided a unique planning mechanism to create an urban environment unlike anything else in Australia or, indeed, the world. In granting self-government to the Australian Capital Territory, the Commonwealth has required retention of the leasehold system and Labor strongly endorses this system. This Government has been about wrecking some of the basics in Canberra, and Labor will continue to fight to protect them.
Mr Collaery: After you sold the Belconnen Mall and ripped the city up, you must be joking! What a joke!
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Labor accordingly opposes any moves towards the introduction of a de facto freehold regime by substantially altering the basis of the existing leasehold system.
Mr Collaery: You have enough money in Western Australia to buy the whole city.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .