Page 1410 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 11 August 1992
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So, Madam Speaker, I am able to assure the Assembly that the Government has responded very swiftly to this report. It was a report that was commissioned by the Government because we had heard stories circulating in the industry that in some aspects all was not as it should be. As a result of the publicity and as a result of the firm government directions to the inspection service, I can assure the Assembly that the building inspectors will continue to take random audits of building sites and, if anything is found not to be correct, it will be required to be pulled down, it will be required to be rectified. The industry is sending out to its members the firm message that they are expected to comply and cooperate and to ensure that high standards remain in the Canberra building industry.
Sutton Park Driver Training Complex
MR STEVENSON: My question is to Mr Wood. What is the current situation with the old Australian Federal Police Driver Training Complex at Sutton Road? Until a definite decision is made on the future of the complex, it is certainly an excellent idea to allow community use of that facility. Has the facility been used free of charge by a group? Is this group charging others for the use of the facility? If so, what are the charges? How much income has been made and what has been done with the money?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I thank Mr Stevenson. The Government is about to make a decision on the permanent arrangements for that site and you can be sure that, as we make that decision, we will have in mind the greatest benefit to Canberrans coming from that use. It is a large site; it is an important one; and there is no small number of groups who view it as a very useful asset. At present the site is managed by the ACT Road Transport and Distribution Industry Training Council. That is one of a number of groups established to promote training amongst various industries in the ACT and it is an appropriate group to have interim management because transport and driving is what they are on about.
You have asked, I presume, whether that group has had free use of the site. I will get some more detail for you on that, although I thank you for notification of your question. That group is operating it and is letting out the site. It has interim management. It lets it out at $100 a day for other users. I am not sure, and I will find out for you, whether they charge themselves $100 and put it into some management fund. That money at present, I believe, goes to Consolidated Revenue. It may be appropriate in the longer term for the revenue raised on the site to be spent on the site; that it should not cost us anything to manage. Other groups have had free use for a charity purpose. I do not know that there has been a great number of those. The amount of money raised in the second half of the 1991-92 financial year was $12,750.
Land Tax
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Treasurer. I refer to the Treasurer's statement of last week on land tax. She acknowledges in that statement what the rest of Canberra has known for some time - that there are clear anomalies in the law with respect to land tax. I assume that one of those anomalies is the case where a family home is owned by a family company, and that is why stamp duty has been temporarily lifted for transfer of that home to family members. I ask
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