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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 691 ..

Mr Osborne: You are not answering the question.

MRS CARNELL: It does not matter.

MR SPEAKER: We have been through this before.

Mr Osborne: Mrs Carnell can answer all that other stuff in answers to the questions on notice. Was the owner of the building consulted prior to the Fingerscan system going in? Has the Chief Minister's Department received any complaints from Customs? Did it cost more than $37,000, more like $70,000? They are three very simple questions.

MRS CARNELL: I will take them on notice.

MS HORODNY: My question is directed to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. I hope that, unlike Mrs Carnell, he believes that it does matter to answer the question correctly. It would be sad if everyone in the Government believed as Mrs Carnell does. Mr Humphries has had notice of this question. I would like to ask you about Mr John Stefos, who is the proprietor of the Boomerang Cafe in Mort Street in Braddon. Mr Stefos has run his cafe in the old TAU Theatre for the last 10 years and he has provided a valuable service to workers in the Braddon area. Earlier this year, however, your department told Mr Stefos that his lease will be terminated on 17 May so that the building can be demolished to make way for a small number of car parking spaces. Given that your Government has said many times in the past that it supports small retailers in Canberra, how can you justify the forced closure of this successful small business for the sake of building a few extra car parking spaces in an area that already has adequate car parking and cause Mr Stefos to lose over $300,000 which he has invested in that business, force his six staff to lose their jobs and deprive the Government of the $13,000 per annum that he pays in rent to the Government?

MR HUMPHRIES: I am very grateful to Ms Horodny for asking this question, because there has been publicity about this issue in the last day or so and I am very keen to have the Government's response to that publicity put on the table. I think a little bit of history of this site would be appropriate. Members might recall that this was a motor vehicle testing station years ago. In 1987 the TAU Community Theatre Association took a lease over the former station. It had occupied the building since 1983. It was granted a 10-year lease in 1987. That 10-year lease expires in May of this year. At that time Mr Stefos rented an area of the theatre for the purpose of a backstage restaurant and takeaway cafe. That was a sublease of the TAU Theatre's lease of the premises.

In June 1990 the TAU Theatre and the backstage restaurant burnt down, but the Boomerang Cafe was not affected by that fire. The TAU Theatre ceased operating and, as the head lessee, wanted to surrender its lease over the whole site straightaway. That surrender could not be effected because Mr Stefos, in his cafe, put a caveat on the lease to say that there should not be any further dealings without his permission.

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