Page 4198 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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I noted that Mr Kaine was critical of certain details of the legislation in respect of an alleged uncertainty for commercial leases. I am sure that when we get to the detail stage Mr Wood will look very carefully at Mr Kaine's proposals, discuss them with his officers, and come back with a very full and detailed response.
A point that occurs to me is that, to the extent that there are criticisms that commercial leases are not adequately protected, I certainly look forward to similar support for protection of commercial lessees when we look at commercial sublessees. The Chief Minister announced in Small Business Week that the Government is proceeding in the consumer affairs field, under the Fair Trading Bill, to produce a rigorous code to protect the interests of small business lessees. Traditionally, big business groups have resisted attempts to provide the small business person, the sublessee, with greater security of tenure and greater protection.
It is ironic that when we debate land use procedures in the ACT, where all anybody has is a lease - nobody is a landlord in the sense that nobody owns the freehold - perhaps certain sectors at the larger end of the business area are terribly concerned about the need for certainty in a commercial lease and the need for protection of the long-term interest of the commercial lessee. I look forward to a similar concern for certainty and the interests of the smaller commercial tenant who is often a sublessee to the larger commercial tenant. I am sure that Mr Kaine will be fully supportive of the Labor Government's protection for the small business person, given his expressed concerns today for the larger business person, the person who holds a commercial lease.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is an excellent package of legislation. I am proud to be part of a Labor Government that is introducing such an innovative and far-sighted Bill, which will long be a landmark of legislative development in this first Assembly.
MRS GRASSBY (4.51): In 1909 the Yass-Canberra region was chosen as a site for a future capital. Anybody who has ever lived in Canberra or ever visited Canberra would say, no doubt, that it certainly is a beautiful place to put a capital. It is after spending some time in this beautiful city that you realise how beautiful it is. In 1912 Walter Burley Griffin designed a city that was to be both attractive and functional. I was born in the town that Walter Burley Griffin was first given to design, just in case he did not really know what he was doing here, and that was the town of Griffith. He did Griffith and Leeton.
When I first moved here I found it very easy to get around Canberra. People used to say to me, "How can you possibly find your way around Canberra, because it is all circles?". Well, I came from a town that was built exactly the same way. It was the style of Walter Burley Griffin to build
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