Page 3592 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991

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that if he examines his own voting record he will see that he tends to congratulate the Labor Party considerably more often and considerably more fulsomely than he does anybody on this side of the chamber.

Amendment agreed to.

MR COLLAERY (5.44): I seek leave to move an amendment which is out of sequence because it comes in a line ahead of the Chief Minister's recent amendment.

Leave granted.

MR COLLAERY: I move:

Paragraph 5(a), page 3, line 6, omit proposed subsection (1A), substitute the following subsection:

"'(1A) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a parcel of land does not cease to be the principal place of residence of its owner by reason only that the owner does not occupy the parcel for a period not exceeding -

(a) if the reason for the owner's absence is related to his or her employment or occupation - 3 years if he or she occupies the parcel for a continuous period of 2 years in any period of 5 years commencing on a prescribed date;

(b) if the Commissioner is satisfied that by reason of the death or illness of any person or on some other compassionate ground the owner has a compelling reason for not occupying the parcel for a longer period than 12 months - that longer period; or

This Bill, as it presently stands, stipulates that the commissioner may allow an exemption for the house owner - or landlord, if you want to put it that way - who, because of employment or occupation, "has a compelling reason for not occupying the parcel for a period longer than 12 months".

If we are to have this legislation - and I have said earlier that it was telegraphed three months in advance and that the horse has bolted and the charges are already there - it should be equitable. There are people in this community who have residences that they rarely occupy.

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