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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2388 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

is to continue with the current system of leasehold, and I have already said publicly that this Government will not seek, during the term of this Assembly, to change the current system of tenure to freehold or perpetual leasehold, notwithstanding our preferred policy to move towards perpetual leasehold. Our decision to accept the board of inquiry's recommendations on this issue, while we continue discussions with the business community and the broader community about the future of the leasehold system, was not taken without political cost to the Government.

That is at page 816. In December 1996, as reported at page 4806 of Hansard, Mr Humphries, in responding to a question from Mr Berry, said:

Mr Speaker, first of all, I must say that I am referring to us, the ACT Government. Much as I would love to ... direct the Federal Government - I can assure you that we could all think of some wonderful things to do - - -

He was referring to us, in sharp contrast to the Federal Government. You will learn a bit more when I quote from the rest of that answer, or you can go back and look at the full question. Mr Berry then took this point of order:

I think the Minister is pretending to be a little bit obtuse. I know he is sharper than that. The question that was asked of him was whether he can explain the move to change the Federal Land Act. Did it happen without his knowledge?

This was in December, after he had already told us in March that nothing was going to happen. Mr Humphries said:

No, Mr Speaker; he quoted words that I had used - "We will not move to change the system to perpetual leasehold" - and I am making the point that "we" means the ACT Government, not the Federal Government. Mr Speaker, the Federal Government has announced its intention to allow the ACT Legislative Assembly to change the system of land tenure through legislation enacted in this place; not to do it by itself; not to have the Federal Parliament create that tenure by an enactment that imposes it on the ACT, a la the Andrews Bill, but rather to allow the ACT Assembly to enact that if it so chooses. When I made the commitment that Mr Berry refers to there was a Labor government in power federally, and I certainly could not speak for a Federal Labor government, much less than I could speak for a Federal Liberal government.

Mrs Carnell then interjected:

I do not know: It is about even, I reckon.

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