Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 693 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

in the new Holiday Inn building - and, what is more, at a discounted rent that is less than the full commercial rent that would be applicable for a site like that. He has been offered that. I gather that that offer is still on the table and I sincerely hope Mr Stefos takes that offer up.

It is absolutely wrong to suggest that Mr Stefos has not had a sympathetic and high level of consultation about these issues. It is wrong to suggest that he was ever at any stage given any suggestion that he might have a long-term lease on that site. If, as you suggested, Mr Stefos invested $300,000 in a lease which had a couple of years to run and which it had been explicitly stated he would not get renewed, with great respect, Mr Stefos is not a particularly wise businessman to have made a decision of that kind.

The Government would be happy to leave Mr Stefos where he is if it could find a way of leaving him there, but unfortunately it cannot. I think in all the circumstances you would do very well to go back to Mr Stefos and say that he would be very wise to take up the offer on the new site. I can understand his reluctance to do so. The reluctance would be based on the fact that he would be paying maybe four times the rent he is paying on the present site, but the reason for that is that he was given a very heavily discounted rent on the present Boomerang Cafe site because it was a very short term lease. Presumably, Mr Stefos wants a longer-term lease. He will have to pay something approaching the commercial rent for that area, which is about $220 a square metre, not the $50 a square metre which he is presently paying.

MR WOOD: My question is to Mr Kaine. Minister, you seem aware, at least to some extent, that the Federal Minister for Tourism, John Moore, has made a string of disgraceful attacks on, and derogatory comments concerning, the ACT over the past couple of months, saying, for example, that he wished more government meetings would take place in Sydney, that he detested Parliament House and that the ACT taxi service was a disgrace. Some of these comments were made in an address to a delegation from Japan being hosted by Canberra Tourism, and other comments that degraded the ACT were made in front of a combined meeting of tourism executives and Ministers from across Australia. Mr Kaine, as Minister for Tourism, why did you allow these remarks to continue unchallenged, as they reinforced the damage to the ACT tourism industry of Federal decisions such as the Prime Minister's decision not to live in the Lodge? Further, why were you unaware, as I could discern, until a minute ago that the Chief Minister had raised the problem with the Prime Minister? Finally, when will you interest yourself in the matter of defending Canberra?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, it is a sad fact - and we are all aware of it - that Federal Ministers and members of the Federal Parliament often take some pleasure in knocking Canberra. The reason for that is obvious. It gets them votes where they get elected. This Minister that Mr Wood is talking about now is no different to any of the others over there. I do not control the way that members of the Federal Parliament behave.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .