Page 4516 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
whether it can be incorporated into the new proposals, and just what might be done with it. We will give you an assurance that there will be some further review of the use of that building and the practicality of maintaining it.
Mr Jensen raised the question of betterment and sought an answer from me, which I will give him, though there is yet some definition to be established. Under the formula that was established when Mr Jensen was part of the Alliance Government, the betterment charge in this case will be either 50 per cent or 80 per cent, and that depends on the interpretation that we give to the time when the application was lodged. If we deem that the application was lodged before 20 February, the betterment charge will be 50 per cent; if we deem it to be after 20 February, the betterment charge will be 80 per cent. I understand that 20 February is the date on which you brought in the new formula for betterment. At 20 February there were negotiations about changes, I am informed, between the club and the planners; but there may have been no formal application.
Mr Collaery: We wanted a formal application. That was the cut-off.
MR WOOD: That was the cut-off? So, it depends now on how the Government interprets when an application was made. That was your interpretation. We will look at the matter, and we will make our interpretation of that cut-off point. It is obviously a very critical matter because the amount of betterment will be quite substantial. Mr Jensen, that is the answer at this stage. We have not yet determined, as we look at the documentation, just when that application was made.
As to the proposal that clubs should never change, over quite a long period a number of our clubs have changed, and they have changed in a variety of ways - not necessarily the same way as this one, because this is a new proposal that is unique. Do not forget that this is a growing city. This is a city that is in no sense static, and change, I am afraid to tell people, is inevitable. We do permit clubs to change the nature of what they do, to change their leases and to undergo rebuilding and development in new ways that will be to the advantage of the club and the community. In this Assembly you will soon be considering a proposal by the Southern Cross Club for very significant change in the Phillip area. I am sure that we do not automatically rule out change around clubs, unless of course it is change around clubs in particular areas, and I will come back to that one shortly.
The proposal itself, I think - and I am sure that the Assembly members will agree - is an innovative one and, with that, a sound one. If we could isolate the proposal from any suburb, from any parcel of land, we would say that this is good. I, for one, believe that indoor bowls - synthetic lawn bowls, I expect it would be - would be a
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .