Page 3690 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 20 October 1993
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Mr Kaine: Unless you buy a Maserati.
MR LAMONT: Unless you buy a yacht or a place at Point Piper, and then there may be other things that are bigger; but I will not go into that. Most people treasure the amenity that is provided by that single largest capital investment, and we need to balance their rights to be able to do on that block of land what they like, within reason, and the rights of their neighbour to enjoy their block of land and to ensure that their rights, within reason, are taken into account in the most cost-effective way that we can. I suppose, at the end of the day, that this is not a good thing to say on the public record.
Mr Humphries: Say it anyway.
MR LAMONT: It may be misconstrued, as Mr Humphries generally misconstrues things. What we have attempted to do is to provide the cheapest appeal system and the cheapest way of ensuring that those competing rights are met and are dealt with.
Mr Wood: Cost-effective.
MR LAMONT: Yes, cost-effective. I am sure that a number of lawyers would suggest to me that it is cost-effective to take something off to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. They may have a justifiable argument, as they see it. What we were charged with, and what this Assembly is charged with, was to try to come up with not just the most cost-efficient but the cheapest and the best, so that you do not end up trading off performance, so that you do not end up trading off the rights of individuals, and so that you do not end up trading off all of those fine concepts that are outlined in the Territory Plan, for the sake of cheapness. I believe that, with this recommendation and the Minister's legislation, we have been able to arrive at a balance that will stand the test of time. In five or six years' time, here in this Assembly, I look forward to being able to review the activities of the appeals board.
Mr De Domenico: Not here; over there.
MR LAMONT: In fact it will not be in this building, as Mr De Domenico points out; it will be in the new premises of the Assembly. In five or six years' time, in the new Assembly premises, I look forward to reviewing the operation. I look forward to reviewing the operation of this body and this activity in 12 months' time.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister and his officers, and indeed the Law Office, on being able to bring forward this legislation in the timeframe in which they have. It has been no mean feat to do so, and to do so in the way that it has occurred. I would like also, in the one minute and 30 seconds left to me, Madam Speaker, to place on the record my best wishes to Mr Harrison from the Law Office, who is currently outposted to DELP, and who, I understand, suffered a heart attack prior to lunch today and has been taken to hospital. I certainly wish him a speedy recovery, and I seek to have passed on to him the best wishes of the members of this Assembly.
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