Page 787 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 April 1994
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Mr Berry: Very efficient too.
MR WOOD: Absolutely. The fact is that there has been a minor delay - I do not think of anything like three months - because there was a sudden upsurge in applications in the first month or two of this year, I think it was. I would have to check the precise time. There had been a long period of high activity in the building area. It dropped back to sustainable levels - the usual rate of development - and now it has shot up again. I think that caught people a bit by surprise. My understanding is that the section is working to catch up with a little bit of a backlog. I do not think it is as much as three months. Sometimes when you get complaints that there is three months or six months' delay, it is because the applicant is not always complying with the requirements. There can be a bit of shovelling of applications back for compliance. If you have particular cases, Mr Moore, I would be quite interested to attend to them.
MR MOORE: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I wonder whether the Minister would identify for the house what his expected minimum and expected maximum times would be for Building Control applications to be dealt with.
MR WOOD: I will come back to you on that, Mr Moore. There is a time. They have a set arrangement within which they try to do things. My memory tells me, from a recent visit to some of these areas, that for a routine housing approval it is 10 days; but I would want to confirm that with you as the desirable time. That is a pretty good target. You have to understand that under the present system they travel around quite a deal of Canberra, and there is a great number of them every week. I will let you know precisely.
Petrol Station Site
MR DE DOMENICO: My question without notice is to the Attorney-General in his capacity as Minister for consumer affairs and follows his answer to Mrs Carnell's question. Minister, is it true that, under the Government's agreement with Burmah Fuels, Burmah paid nothing for the site, is reimbursed all establishment costs, pays no land rates, pays no water rates, pays no land tax, and has been promised other sites on the same basis?
MR CONNOLLY: I cannot remember how many points there were; but no, no, no, no, no, no, no and no. I refer to my answer to Mrs Carnell and the documents tabled therein. Burmah are not the owners of the site; they are on short-term rent, so of course they do not pay land tax and the like. They pay what a person who is subleasing a petrol station site pays to the person who owns the petrol station site, but they pay at a rate that is comparable with the rate they told us operated for petrol station sites.
Mr De Domenico: And you took their word?
MR CONNOLLY: Burmah pay at the rate that is comparable to what the Motor Trades Association said was the standard industry norm for the licensee of the site. Many sites are operated where a licensee of the site is operating a site that is owned by either one of the major petroleum companies or some other investment entity. Certainly for the first year there will be no net payment over because, unlike - - -
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