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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3662 ..

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shortened, not only in the case of hardship to a party as at present, but also where not to do so would cause a party to be prejudiced or it is in the public interest to shorten the time.

Further, special provision is made as to the time limit for the giving of a decision in matters under the Land Act but the Tribunal is not subject to such a time limit in matters decided in the General Division. Section 282ZG of the Land Act provides that the Board shall endeavour to give a decision within five working days after the hearing. Experience shows that, in many cases, the Board exceeds the tight five day time limit. It is proposed by clause 23 of the AAT Bill that the Tribunal, in respect of a matter in the Land and Planning Division, shall endeavour to give its decision within 14 days (ie, 10 working days) after the hearing. This, I believe, is a more realistic time limit. Members will be interested to know that the Stein Report suggested that decisions by the Tribunal be given extemporaneously and reduced to writing within ten days or reserved and delivered within 30 days.

To enable the Tribunal to bring Land Act cases to a hearing as soon as possible, it is vital that parties must not

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