Page 665 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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You can understand my further concern when, in the presentation speech, the Chief Minister stated that the allocation of this sort of money will simply be subject to ministerial approval of the amount. It will not come to the Assembly. We will not have any say in whether this money is to be applied or not, to persons unknown, to acquire or rent dwellings in which they intend to reside. No, it is simply a matter of the Minister - the Chief Minister in this case, I presume - approving the amount. I have no idea how much money may be left over here; it could be $300,000 or $400,000, for all we know. The Chief Minister just has to approve the amount required for these unknown people to acquire or rent dwellings in which they intend to reside. I do not regard this as a satisfactory arrangement.
I am, frankly, suspicious that the Government may use it for promoting all sorts of their social objectives, and I would like some clarification as to the intention of the Chief Minister and this Government in relation to that proposed new paragraph of the Agents Act. I do not believe that it is satisfactory that ministerial approval only be granted. I support Mr De Domenico's amendment to this because, at least with it, we would have two members of the profession who could monitor this type of activity and who hopefully would be in a position to vote a little more convincingly than under the present arrangement, which will mean that there will be a voice in the wilderness if the Chief Minister decides to apply funds from the interest account for, I repeat, unknown people to acquire or rent dwellings in which they intend to reside.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.58): Madam Speaker, I would like to answer the points that Mr Cornwell has made. This clause in the Bill refers to a residual amount. Madam Speaker, I think it is likely that there may never be such an amount because, as Mr Cornwell will know, the ways in which the moneys standing to the credit of this interest account can be spent are specified. The first is to the credit of the administration account - in other words, to run the body; the second is for educational programs and so on; and the final matter is this residual amount which, as Mr Cornwell has stated, can be applied for the provision of housing or to assist people to acquire housing.
Madam Speaker, it is my understanding that this is a fairly usual clause and that New South Wales has a similar scheme. I think the most compelling comparison that I can make is with the Landlord and Tenant Act and the provision of the Rental Bond Board. This is a piece of Alliance legislation which contains very much the same sort of provision. If there is a residual amount, some provision has been made for it. In the rental bond arrangement that provision is:
... facilitating assistance in the provision of residential accommodation, whether or not that accommodation is provided pursuant to this Act.
So, Madam Speaker, it is clearly a fairly standard sort of arrangement to make for a residual amount of money, and it was made by members opposite when they were in government. I think there is a further constraint upon the application of the moneys under the Agents (Amendment) Bill, Madam Speaker, and that is that it requires ministerial approval. That is not the case in all such expenditure of residual amounts; at least that constraint is placed upon it.
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