Page 2649 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 1994
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Detail Stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Heritage and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (5.15): Madam Speaker, I rise to respond briefly to Mr Cornwell's comments about the Paddy's River lease. I might say that, when, routinely, some considerable time ago, that matter passed through my hands and, as I recall, before I was approached by the person who is complaining, I sent it back and asked for a full account of it because there might have been suspicions - I do not think they could have been more than that - in sections of the community about favouritism on rural leases and people being in the know. I reviewed that matter very carefully at that time, before being approached. I examined every aspect of it, and I believe that it was handled fairly and properly.
Mr Cornwell mentioned compensation. My memory of that - I will come back and give Mr Cornwell the precise figures - is that the person who had purchased the lease in the 1970s had it for only about a fortnight before he received a withdrawal notice and was told that it was not going to be his any more. After much debate, two years later, he received compensation which was getting up towards twice as much as he paid for the lease. So I am not sure that it was unjustly done; although, of course, there were processes which prevented the 30-year payments. I do not think there was any financial disadvantage. Indeed, it was probably a reasonable deal for that person.
To get back to the specific issue of this Bill, when I introduced it in June, I forecast that some amendments might need to be made. The Land Acquisition Bill relates, in the main, to the compulsory acquisition of land. Where the Executive acquires an interest in land through the marketplace, such activity should not be subject to the provisions of the legislation. The proposed amendments, in part, are intended to make this clear. As a consequence, a number of provisions which deal with the acquisition of an interest in the market are no longer necessary, and these are deleted.
I seek leave to move together the amendments circulated in my name, and I present the explanatory memorandum.
Leave granted.
MR WOOD: I move:
Page 7, line 18, clause 16, subclause (1), insert "under this Act" after "acquisition".
Page 7, lines 27 and 28, clause 16, paragraph (2)(a), omit the paragraph.
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