Page 2168 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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lives and safety of children jeopardised as they cross major roads to get to school. The financial cost of closures has never been revealed by Mr Humphries. The community cost simply cannot be calculated.
Stability is also needed in planning and lease administration. The present law has made planning and lease decisions the province of lawyers and the court system. The prospect that development proposals will end up in court is a major obstacle to investment confidence and to rational and stable planning of our city. After criticising my Government for not introducing new planning legislation in the space of seven months, Mr Kaine's Government has failed to deliver the goods in the 18 months that it has had. Even after that 18 months and even after adopting all the basic policy work done by my Government, Mr Kaine has managed to produce only a hopelessly complicated draft Bill. The Kaine Government's confusion on planning legislation and its outrageous decision to give away the community's interest in commercial lease renewal show that this Government is incapable of providing a workable and balanced result.
It is typical, unfortunately, of Mr Kaine's style and agenda that he chose to announce his decision on commercial leases to a business lunch. He apparently did not inform his Cabinet colleagues at the time; he certainly did not inform this Assembly of his decision to pre-empt the new planning legislation; and he has apparently, since then, sought to deny that he made the decision at all. This is hardly a recipe for inspiring investor confidence in the ACT, and it is yet another disaster in terms of community confidence in the Chief Minister and his Government.
Indeed, the audacity of Mr Kaine's decision is breathtaking. His Government's decision to scrap the charge for renewal of commercial leases has handed developers a windfall gain of many millions of dollars. At a time when Mr Kaine is cutting community services for lack of money, when he is crying poor to the community and the Premiers Conference, he has given away a growing source of the Territory's revenue. This decision, as we know, was the straw which broke the Alliance camel's back. And, on the ground of abdicating responsibility for the leasehold system alone, I believe that this Government must go.
There is a host of other examples of where this Government has demonstrated its contempt for community interests. Perhaps the most blatant and the most heartless is the impending closure of Royal Canberra Hospital. The Liberal agenda has always been to place health services in the hands of private individuals for private profit. But the casual way in which Mr Kaine and Mr Humphries have dismissed the views of Canberra citizens is appalling. Who will forget their contempt for the views of more than 40,000 citizens who signed petitions about the hospital? What about the health care interests of people in North Canberra and Belconnen? What about the provision of hospital services when Gungahlin is developed?
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