Page 2586 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 1993
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MR DE DOMENICO: Who is the other one?
Ms Ellis: No. There are two associations.
MR DE DOMENICO: Right. For the information of members of this Assembly, people who support the Liberal Party - even members of the Liberal Party - actually pay rates. Amazing as that may seem, even members of the Liberal Party and members of the Labor Party pay rates. I do not know what Mr Moore's in-tray is like, but I have hundreds of letters of concern from members of the Labor Party, even members of the former Residents Rally and the very few people who support Mr Moore. They are very concerned about the fact that their rating bills have gone up by such an amount. Of course no tax is a good tax in the thinking of the community. To suggest that being a member of the Liberal Party precludes anybody from setting up a ratepayers association is nonsense, Mr Moore.
Mr Lamont: Is Ms Spier a member?
MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, she is a member of the Liberal Party.
Mr Connolly: She is the one who says that we should not be spending money on welfare.
MR DE DOMENICO: If Mr Lamont and others want to get involved, I am not going to entertain them. Madam Speaker, if I were to name members of the Labor Party who are members of other community organisations, we would be here all night. I would welcome that debate. We can book the Albert Hall and have it there, but I am not going to waste the time of the Assembly by having it here.
In summary, Madam Speaker, I think that the Minister's approach is a sensible one. Once again, it might not be the one that Mr Moore agrees with, but then again there are a lot of things that the Government does that Mr Moore does not agree with - quite rightly, Mr Moore. I look forward to the Minister's further statement to the Assembly. I agree with the Minister that a lot has been said about betterment tax without people actually understanding what it is and how it works. The Minister might come back and say that it is the best way of ensuring equity between the community and the developers. There may not need to be any changes at all. But we will be interested to hear what the Minister has to say.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (3.54), in reply: Madam Speaker, it is correct, as Mr Moore says, that I can very rapidly change the regulations; but, of course, the major part of the timescale is the consideration that precedes that, and I would not wish to act hurriedly. At the same time, after two years as Minister, it is clear enough that I have been giving quite ample consideration to this. The department for some time has been monitoring the effect of betterment, and it was earlier this year that I asked them to review it and to prepare a paper. It could well have been in this Assembly before, had it not been for the time Cabinet has been spending on the ACT budget.
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