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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2409 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (3.53): Mr Speaker, traditionally with these things, or at least in the tradition established by Mr Berry's motion of no confidence in 1994, the Minister being moved against gets the chance to respond after all the members have spoken - except, of course, for the mover of the motion, who gets the right to close the debate. I take it that members - - -

Mr Berry: Yes, I will speak.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry wants to speak. Okay.

MR BERRY (Leader of the Opposition) (3.53): Yes, I will have a go. That is fair enough. That is a fair point. Mr Speaker, I had thought that I would wait until Mr Humphries was finished, but he has made a fair point and I will attempt to pick up the threads at short notice. I think the first thing that one has to go to in respect of this matter is the statement by the Minister which my colleague Ms McRae referred to in her speech. This has been quoted ad nauseam, but I still think it is important to re-emphasise it because I think it makes clear that this Minister was telling this Assembly that it had nothing to worry about. He was creating the impression in this Assembly that nobody in this Assembly need worry about this Government because this Government was not going to do anything that would upset any of us in respect of the leasehold system. That was the impression he was attempting to create in this Assembly. He said this:

... 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.

We all said, "Phew! Thank goodness. That is great. That is that issue out of it. It is finished. Mr Humphries has given us an undertaking. We will expect him to stick with that. Nothing more will happen until perhaps after the next election. If the Liberals can win an election on the basis of their silly policy on perpetual leasehold, if that is the only issue they win their election on, then they can go for their lives". We would all sit back relaxed after that and take the Minister at face value. The impression was certainly created that this Government would do nothing.

Mr Speaker, the next thing I turn to is the Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910. Section 9 of that Act refers to the disposal of crown lands and says this:

No Crown lands in the Territory shall be sold or disposed of for any estate of freehold, except in pursuance of some contract entered into, or the right to enter into which existed before the commencement of this Act, or except for the purpose of giving effect to some right which existed before the commencement of this Act ...

Excuse me; I think I may have - - -

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