Page 4193 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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when are they going to do it; and what are the qualifications going to be? It concerns me because that whole clause seems to be based on a statement that the Minister made in his speech at page 8 when he said:
It is apparent to the Government that there is a strong view in parts of the community -
I emphasise that -
that commercial and residential lease renewals should not be treated on the same basis.
Well, Minister, my question is: What about the views of other parts of the community that no doubt hold equally strong views? I am sure that they have expressed them; yet you reject them.
So, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that is the main concern that I have about the Bill. As I have said, there are others which I will take up with the Minister. I think that we need to consider all of the interests that this Bill affects. We have to ensure Canberra's future in terms of its development potential and the possibility that that potential can be realised, very largely, by private enterprise which invests risk capital and takes decisions about its capital. This does not give them any confidence at all, in my view.
I am anxious to hear the views of others in the Assembly in this debate. I am confident that there will be many amendments and that we will have to consider those very carefully in the debate at the detail stage. I will just refer briefly to a couple of those. In one case it is just a very simple word and it has to do with subclause 18(2), which talks about EISs and the like. It says:
At the Authority's written request, or of his or her own motion, the Minister may -
(a) direct that an Assessment be made; or
(b) establish a panel to conduct an Inquiry ...
I am quite sure that there will be some people in this community who would say that the Minister ought to, that he should not be allowed to use his discretion; but I will be interested to see whether anybody has any comment on that.
Some people, I know, before the debate proceeds any further, will not like the limitations on appeal rights that this Bill sets into place. There is the constraint that I referred to before, that if it is something that is prescribed in the plan it will not be appealable. I know that there will be people who will not like that and I will be interested to follow the debate on the subject.
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