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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (14 December) . . Page.. 3074 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

When he went into government there were no deals with me, and there were no deals in terms of the Liberals going into government. He referred in his speech on a number of occasions to a number of triggers that set off this inquiry. Those triggers, amongst other things, were mostly to do with the Starlight Drive-In and Yowani.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the inquiry that Justice Stein and others have reported on is in itself particularly interesting because it is a compromise view between what some of us have argued for for a long time and what development interests in this town have sought. The most important thing that has happened today, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that we can actually understand now why it is that this report was necessary after such a long time when Mr Wood was at the helm. Mr Wood built up this report in a straw man fashion and then knocked it down. Mr Wood kept saying that the report did not identify what people were doing right but rather what they were doing wrong. Perhaps it is this side of Mr Wood, this rubber side of a Minister of great goodwill, that directs us to his own failings as Minister. In many ways, and particularly for a teacher, it probably is a very positive attribute. But in this case this inquiry did not set out to look for what was right. That was not its job. It set out to look for what was wrong, and that is what it has reported on. Yes, many of the things that Mr Wood said were right were right. Of course they were right. That there was goodwill amongst the bureaucrats was definitely right as well.

The other failing of the former Minister in interpreting this inquiry is that he ought to have read the terms of reference. He said again and again: If there were a series of flaws, why did they not ask him as a politician? Why did they not approach a whole series of other issues? Well, the terms of reference did not ask them to. The terms of reference were about the administration of the leasehold system. Perhaps, Mr Wood, you did not read those first few pages, although I doubt it. I believe, in fact, that you read the report, and clearly, from your speech, you read it extremely carefully. I notice that your copy of the report is even more dog-eared than mine, so I accept that you have read it with a great deal of care. The terms of reference are:

1. Examine and report on the administration of the ACT leasehold system since self government with particular reference to the determination of betterment, and including:

a) adherence to the applicable statutory framework;

b) generation of financial returns to the government and community;

c) cost of the process of lease variation and determination of betterment;

d) adequacy of the relevant organisational arrangements, including the time taken to process applications and approvals;

e) the extent to which the original purpose of the leasehold system is relevant;

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