Page 4647 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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Administrative Appeals Tribunal. I think she is still chasing up her legal costs and other expenses incurred as a result of the action she had to take. It cost her about $12,000 for what was, one would think, basic commonsense.
Here was a house which, when one looked at it closely, had very little heritage value of itself. The area certainly had a heritage value - the streetscape, but not the house itself. It was a case, perhaps, of overriding bureaucratic and not practical considerations coming to the fore. Indeed, a lot of the concerns people have with planning legislation and the way planning has operated in the past in the ACT are about the bureaucratic controls and the restrictions, sometimes unreasonable restrictions, in relation to planning issues. It is good to see that some of that has been addressed in this complex but basically sound legislation.
Similarly, I personally had no problem with the Forrest bowling club building. Having seen the place at first hand, having been there a number of times for a drink over 20 years, I have a fair knowledge of what it looked like 20 years ago and just what renovations, additions and deletions have occurred since. I saw some very nice beams there, but there was not too much that would lead me to dispute the Government's decision that that building did not have any real remaining heritage value. I note that the Government will look at that again. I will be interested to see what they come up with.
Mrs Nolan: What about the green?
MR STEFANIAK: I am not talking about the green, Mrs Nolan; I am talking about the clubhouse. The clubhouse reminded me very much, in terms of the modifications and problems it had, of Bronwyn McCaskill's house.
In this legislation there is provision for third-party appeals. That is to be reviewed after two years, and I think that is very sensible. I do see the question of third-party appeals as one where there are a number of potential problems, and it is very sensible that that be reviewed.
I note in clauses 193, 194 and 195 the old question of the renewal of residential and commercial leases. To my mind and to the Liberal Party's mind, these must be the same. You cannot and you should not differentiate between the renewal of a residential lease and the renewal of a commercial lease. The renewal should have an administrative fee only; to do otherwise puts a damper on business confidence to invest. I am not going to go in any great detail into the various problems there; that has been talked about before ad infinitum. I think it is important, however, that the renewal have simply an administrative fee. Business leases can be treated differently by way of a betterment tax and other rates, rather than a renewal fee.
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