Page 4699 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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To suggest any sinister motive, or that the location of the authority within DELP allows undue influence, from either land development or environmental influences, is to misunderstand the clearly independent role of the authority. I note what members are saying about the location of the authority, and I will be talking further to them.
Mr Moore raised concerns about the issue of betterment. These are concerns that the Assembly has addressed in a number of previous debates. I would just like to add that, where a lease purpose clause is varied in accordance with the plan, a lessee will be required to pay betterment in respect of that variation at a rate determined by the scale which was introduced on 22 February 1990.
Mr Moore, like others in the chamber - not too many others, I think - supports the creation of an environmental advisory council. There is a great deal I could say about that, but I will take that matter up on another occasion. Mr Moore claimed that we were going to put on another tier of government.
Mr Moore: "Bureaucracy", I believe, is the term I used.
MR WOOD: Another tier on the bureaucracy. I do not believe that we are doing this, Mr Moore. However, if some of the proposals that I have heard foreshadowed were to be incorporated in the amendments, we would certainly be adding to the bureaucracy. I think you would recognise that if we went down the path of unlimited appeals or very wide ranging appeals, which I believe are not necessary, we would have to add most substantially to the bureaucracy. So, I do not know how, in logic, Mr Moore could claim that the sensible measures in this Bill would add another tier to the bureaucracy.
Mr Humphries restated his longstanding criticism, that the Bill is complex and difficult to read. The relative complexity of the Bill is acknowledged. It deals with a number of complex issues, some of which have not been dealt with in our legislation before. The contributions of this Government and the former Alliance Government in consolidating and streamlining the Bill have already been spoken of, and I am confident that, given the nature of the subject matter, we have gone a long way in simplifying the Bill. The Government intends to issue a plain English user guide to the legislation prior to its commencement. This should assist in introducing the community to this large and comprehensive legislation package.
Mr Humphries asserted that the Bill contains too many administrative provisions. It is acknowledged that there are a large number of such provisions, but it must be accepted that this is a concession which needs to be made in order to provide clarity and certainty to the processes involved under the Bill.
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