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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 994 ..

MR MOORE: My question is to Mr Humphries as the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. I indicated to him earlier that I would be asking a question about a letter from the Braddon Residents Association to the Chief Planner, of which he had a copy, with regard to blocks 7 to 9, also known as block 13, section 59, Braddon; that is, 66-70 Torrens Street, Braddon. The question is: Why has no betterment or change of use charge been paid, when it was due in July last year? Will you allow demolition on and consolidation of the blocks without payment, or has that already been done? Will you explain why there have been six amendments to the plans for that development in the last 17 months?

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mr Moore for the question and for the time he gave me to prepare for it. Mr Speaker, the advice I have had from the Planning and Land Management Group, I think, partly answers some of the issues that were raised by the Braddon Residents Association but partly, at this point at least, does not; and I intend to follow through the issues that are not properly addressed. At this point the advice to me from the department is that, in fact, contrary to what the Residents Association have suggested, there has not been a lease variation or the issuing of a lease to the applicant for these blocks. Certainly, it has been applied for, as I read this advice, but it has not yet been granted.

Mr Moore: Then why has there been a change to the block and section map?

MR HUMPHRIES: Let me answer that question in a moment. There has not been an issue of a new lease or a lease variation; therefore, the requirement to pay betterment does not arise as yet. There has not been a formal change to the block and section allocation. The block and section numbers are still as registered, because they have not been formally amalgamated to create the three-block space in which a development might occur; but what has changed is the cadastral plan. That has been changed - in fact, it was a condition of the approval - to reflect the decision in anticipation of the payment of betterment and the finalisation of the lease variation. That has been changed as a sort of administrative anticipation of what will happen with the variation to the block and section requirements. If, for some reason, the matter does not proceed - if, for example, betterment is not paid - then the cadastral plan can be changed back very easily and that does not occasion anybody any inconvenience or loss. Therefore, I am comfortable with that occurring.

Mr Moore also asked about the demolition. I am certainly prepared to await the full answers to the issues that are raised by the Braddon Residents Association before any demolition will be allowed to occur. He referred to amendments. He asked whether there were six amendments to the plan over a 17-month period. Certainly, that is the case, Mr Speaker, but the application was finally approved in November 1995. It was the same month as the Stein inquiry came down with its report, criticising the process of frequent changes to applications that were being made by the department. Since then the process of making applications and varying them has been tightened up considerably.

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