Page 642 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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Mr De Domenico: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I suggest respectfully that the Minister is now perhaps getting into a ministerial statement rather than an answer to a question.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, Mr Wood has been asked a question. Mr Wood is answering the question. Proceed, Mr Wood.
Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: The standing orders require that Ministers' answers be brief and to the point and not be ministerial statements.
MADAM SPEAKER: I am quite familiar with that rule, Mr Kaine. Mr Wood is answering the question. He will proceed to answer the question.
MR WOOD: Thank you. I think members opposite would agree that I do not go on at great length, but it may be that I am - - -
Mr Kaine: Well, you are.
MR WOOD: You have raised this on one occasion in over a year. It just may be that I am very keen and excited about this whole project.
Mr Moore: Then make a ministerial statement.
MR WOOD: Mr Moore cannot complain, because he wanted me to add the timeframe to it. But I will expedite the answer. Not only are there benefits in terms of choice; there are also clear benefits to the ACT taxpayer in land development. Not all the benefit will be returned to the home buyer. As a top of the head figure, they might get half the benefit and the rest of the community might get the other half; but I am by no means fixed on that. So, there is clear benefit in what we do. We are getting better choice and we are getting a better return.
MS ELLIS: I put a supplementary question to the Minister. What impact will this all have on the Government's ability to accurately predict needs and maintain an appropriate supply of land when it resumes the responsibility for land development?
Mr Kaine: No better than what they have done up until now.
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, the former Chief Minister has effectively answered the question. The practice will continue. It will be no better or no worse. In fact, it has been very good, and the present system of assessing what land is needed will continue. In recent times, since the problems in Tuggeranong when there was a surfeit of land, mainly due to Malcolm Fraser's change of policy - - -
Opposition members interjected.
MR WOOD: Do not deny that. That was the time in the ACT when there was an oversupply of land. I have to take great care to see that we do not have either an undersupply or an oversupply. The present mechanisms of coordination between government and private agencies to determine the amount of land needed have been working very successfully in recent years. They have judged
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