Page 4644 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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The ACT Government already provides some funding to community groups to assist them in this role. These include the Conservation Council, the National Parks Association and some community councils. It is a bit tough to make them use some of their grant money to buy what is, after all, community property. Those grants are provided for other reasons. A couple of copies in each library are not really sufficient to serve this need, as a library copy should be available to those who want only to enlighten themselves without necessarily providing written comment.
Let me now comment briefly on some of the key factors of this legislation and on what we in the Rally consider ought to be changed or on which we seek a response from the Minister. Let me start with the section dealing with the Territory Plan. For the purposes of debate today, I will deal with the variations to the plan. As I said yesterday, the Rally is not happy with the amount of detail required to be provided in the preparation of a variation. Members may recall that my proposal was to require at least two other forms of advice to be considered and included in the draft variation to the plan.
It is our view that the proposed Act should be amended to require comments, recommendations and reasons for those recommendations to be obtained from the Minister for Urban Services on traffic and safety matters and Australian Capital Territory Electricity and Water on the infrastructure areas they are responsible for. Basically, we are saying that the community and the Assembly, especially the committees of the Assembly, need this information. Quite frankly, there are holes in what we have before us.
Naturally, we also consider that the proposed changes to the interim legislation requiring the Executive to forward all papers to the Assembly for consideration by a committee, and requiring the Executive to wait for this report before making a final decision, should be included in the Bill. This will require an amendment to clause 28 of the Bill. Over the time I have been in the Assembly, as a member of the Planning Committee and as its chair I have had discussions with both the current Minister and the previous Minister, Mr Kaine, about this requirement. There seemed to be some problem in making this information available to the committee to enable it to do some of its work and provide advice. After all, committees are about providing advice to the Executive before it makes its final decision.
As the name suggests, commercial leases are purchased for the express purpose of making a profit. Before anyone suggests that I am averse to an enterprise making a profit, let me say quite clearly that I am not. However, unlike our residential owners, the commercial property owner has various ways whereby the costs of establishing a business can be recovered from profits made from the hire or rent of
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