Page 3514 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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All proposals to grant leases will be referred to the ACT Planning Authority, to ensure that the lease is consistent with the Territory Plan. There is also a provision for the Executive to initiate an inquiry into whether a proposed lease should be granted. Applications to vary a lease are generally subject to a process of registration, public inspection, public notification, objection and third-party appeal.
Other provisions in this part deal with the charging of betterment, which for the present remains unchanged from the sliding scale announced by the former Government in February 1990, and the renewal of leases. As I indicated earlier, commercial leases will be renewed, subject to the lessee paying the determined fee. Residential leases will be renewed on the basis of a determined administrative fee only.
A vital division of the land administration part of the Bill relates to the identification and management of public land. I would like to impress on members that the Government, through this Bill, will be making a most significant contribution to the preservation of public land, which will be to the long-term benefit of the ACT.
Public land, which will be identified in the Territory Plan and subject to public consultation and consideration by the Assembly, will be divided into a number of categories. Each of these has different management objectives identified in the Bill. Reserves of public land will be managed in accordance with both these objectives and plans of management prepared by the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning.
Members will note that, consistent with other parts of the Bill, there are extensive requirements for public consultation in the development of plans of management for particular reserves of public lands. This ensures that the community's values and aspirations are properly taken into account. Indeed, these processes have been described as the most enlightened in Australia.
In summary, the principal features of the Bill's public land provisions are: Procedures for the Conservator of Wildlife to recommend that the Planning Authority vary the plan to identify an area of public land and that this land be reserved and managed for public use; the management of land according to both prescribed objectives applying to a particular area and plans of management reflecting those management objectives; a requirement that plans of management be developed in consultation with the public and, following Executive approval, that they be tabled in the Assembly and subject to disallowance; and the facility to grant leases and licences in areas of public land on the recommendation of the Conservator of Wildlife.
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