Page 3898 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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The Land Act provides that, where the Executive grants a lease by direct grant - for example, to community organisations or for special purposes - a copy of that lease has to be tabled in the Assembly. The Executive is also required to table a statement of the amount, if any, paid for the grant of the lease and a copy of any agreement collateral to the lease. This has to be done within five sitting days after the day on which the lease is granted. Members would note that the non-tabling of the lease would not invalidate the grant of the lease. The requirement to table such leases reflected a concern over the need for greater public accountability in the granting of leases.
This scrutiny has, in reality, been achieved in the Land Act requiring that such leases be granted only in accordance with specified criteria. There is no proposal to alter this procedure and this scrutiny will be maintained. It should be noted that the criteria are in themselves a disallowable instrument; that is, the Assembly may disallow such an instrument. The Land Act also provides that, where a lease is granted over public land, as is defined in the Act, or the Executive decides to issue a lease notwithstanding that the ACT Planning Authority has advised that it is not appropriate to grant the lease, a copy of the lease will be tabled in the Assembly.
The tabling of the leases has proved to be administratively onerous. Since the Land Act commenced 229 leases have been tabled in the Assembly, which includes 83 leases being tabled on one occasion. Had not my department and the Assembly Secretariat come to some arrangement over the number of copies that had to be provided, 30 copies of the required documents would have been forwarded to the Assembly. Among other matters, that is environmentally unsound. While the principle of public accountability is supported by this Government and the Assembly, it should not place an overwhelming burden on the administrative processes, especially when it is possible to implement an alternative arrangement that achieves the desired objective.
The Land (Planning and Environment) (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1992 repeals those provisions in the Land Act that require a lease to be tabled in the Assembly and introduces instead a provision that a list of such leases that have been granted during a quarter be tabled in the Assembly. Members of the Assembly and the general public would then be able to obtain a copy of that lease from the department if they so desired. In fact, when I table the leases I present such a list.
This amendment provides for a scheme that can be easily administered, requiring less resources than the previous arrangement, while affording the opportunity for members of the Assembly and the public to examine a particular lease in which they may be interested. It enables the accountability and scrutiny of the leasing process to be maintained. Madam Speaker, I present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Kaine) adjourned.
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