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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1805 ..

Mr Moore: It should not take long to draw up that amendment.

MR HUMPHRIES: There was probably a snide remark there, which I will not
rise to.

Mr Moore: No; I just said that it will not take me long to draw up that amendment to the Act.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Order! The honourable gentleman will address his remarks to the Chair. Mr Moore, desist from interjecting.

Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker: Who in here is "honourable"?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well, who is dishonourable, I suppose?

Mr Moore: As a supplementary point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker - - -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Resume your seat, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker: To follow up that other one, who is the "gentleman"?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Moore.

MR HUMPHRIES: Brutus is an honourable man, but I do not know whether anybody else is.

Mr Speaker, I am happy to indicate to the Assembly that I will be prepared to advise members of the Assembly if I propose to exercise a discretion under those provisions. I am quite happy to do that. That would certainly provide a bit of the transparency that Mr Moore is seeking. I have no great desire to leave the word "may" in there, in preference to "shall"; but he will understand that I am constrained by the terms of the legislation to do that. But, as I say, unless and until there is a move in the Assembly to change those words, I will exercise the discretion by talking to members of the Assembly either immediately before or immediately after such a discretion is exercised.

Mr Speaker, I do not want to detain the house for long. The Government stands by the provisions about boundary variation in regulation 12B. Boundary variations are currently exempted from the payment of betterment under the terms of the regulations. The purpose of the exemption is to allow for minor alterations in the boundary between adjoining owners where there is no net increase in the value of the leases involved. If lessee A wants to assign part of his or her lease to lessee B right next-door, obviously there is an increase for one person and a decrease for another. It makes very little sense to be charging anybody for betterment in those circumstances.

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