Page 407 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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consumers from arbitrary debt recovery processes; a system to ensure that, where property is seized to secure a debt, the property will be sold for a fair price, and that puts some balance between the consumer and people who may be pursuing the consumer for debt.
The Government took the view that we should produce this as an exposure draft because it is a quite significant piece of legislation. It is one which has been many years in the making. The Law Reform Commission report was some six years ago now and events have changed. We felt that it was appropriate that the community have an adequate and appropriate time to consider the legislation before it is formally introduced into the house. For members' information, we have indicated that the middle of May will be the cut-off date for public submissions on the legislation.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
GORDON VALLEY ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MADAM SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Stevenson proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The need to inquire into improper actions involving the Gordon Valley Estate development.
MR STEVENSON (3.15): I title this matter of public importance the Gordon Valley Estate rort. Let me give a simple introduction. The ACT Government sold land at Gordon to a developer named Landcorp. House sites were then marketed by the real estate company called Realty World, which was owned in common with the developer. In Realty World's extensive marketing and promotion of the land, which they called the Gordon Valley Estate, they emphasised no government housing. They also emphasised that there were covenants requiring minimum conditions on the size and type of properties that could be built. Advertising led prospective buyers to believe that there would be no government housing on the estate, and that the investment they were making in their new homes would be protected.
Since then a 36-unit medium density housing project was purchased by the ACT Housing Trust. In addition to this, the 36 Housing Trust units were not built in accordance with the conditions issued by the vendor which had been placed on other purchasers of private property home sites. Many private home owners on the estate are now alarmed to find that the conditions or the agreements under which they made their original purchase were misrepresented to them before they bought. They say that this misrepresentation has resulted in a financial loss, or a potential financial loss, because the value of their homes has been reduced due to the public housing development. In addition, the owners say that the ACT Government was aware, or at the very least should have been aware, of the deceptive claim of no government housing. They say that the Government had a duty to take action to prevent these misleading claims at the time.
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