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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2389 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

Mr Humphries said:

We will not go into that debate, Mr Speaker. I must say I welcome the move by the Federal Government. I think that has changed the complexion of this debate very considerably and I welcome that. I hope that it does allow us to have a debate in this place, perhaps even in this term of the Assembly, on the provisions for changing the nature of the tenure of land in the ACT.

My party's position has long been that we support a longer sense of tenure for those who hold land in the ACT, both residential and commercial land, and possibly also rural land.

I will read it all so that people do not lose track of what he was saying. He continued:

We take the view that citizens in the ACT who invest in land should not obtain a significantly lesser estate in that land than do citizens making a similarly sized investment in, say, New South Wales or Victoria or anywhere else in the country, and that is why we support these sorts of measures. The measures which appear in the debate today concerning automatic renewal, Mr Speaker, do not amount to perpetual leasehold. They are something that approaches that in terms of security, but are not perpetual leasehold and should not be mistaken for that, although we feel it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Mr Speaker then asked Mr Berry whether he had a supplementary question. Mr Berry asked:

Minister, were you aware of the letter from Mrs Carnell to the Federal Minister requesting this outcome?

Mr Humphries interjected:

What outcome?

Mr Berry asked:

Were you aware of the letter from Chief Minister Carnell to the Federal Minister for Territories requesting this result?

Mr Humphries replied:

Yes, Mr Speaker, I was aware of that letter - - -

Mr Moore interjected, very tellingly:

After you guaranteed no action.

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