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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2417 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

It is consistent, what is more, with my statement to the Property Council on 9 July this year. Much has been made of those remarks to the Property Council. With respect, it rests entirely on a single sentence - or, more precisely, a single phrase in a single sentence - I used when speaking to the Property Council. For the record, let me indicate to Ms McRae that I did not speak to Alex Sloan about this matter at any time during that day. What I think Ms McRae was actually playing over the air was my statements made directly to the Property Council.

Mr Moore: What Ms Sloan was playing over the air.

MR HUMPHRIES: What Ms Sloan was broadcasting was my statements made directly to the Property Council. There was an ABC reporter there. I imagine that he recorded my statements and that that was what was played. I was not interviewed by Alex Sloan, but what I said was played over the air before Mr Service was interviewed. I am not responsible for what Mr Service thinks about that matter; I am responsible for what I said. What I said was:

We have had discussions with the Federal Government and I'm hopeful that the legislative steps at the federal level will be taken before the end of the year -

I repeat "I'm hopeful that the legislative steps at the federal level will be taken before the end of the year", and that is what is now happening -

to allow us to create, to issue, or rather to automatically convert all the existing leases in the ACT that are of that kind into 999-year leases.

If the words "before the end of the year" had appeared at the end of the sentence - - -

Mr Corbell: There was not any proviso on that statement. It is there. You are doing it.

MR HUMPHRIES: I was referring to our creating those leases, but I was referring to one thing happening before the end of the year and that was for the legislative steps at the Federal level to be taken. If the phrase "before the end of the year" had appeared at the end of the sentence - that is, if I had proposed that before the end of the year two things would happen: One, the legislative steps would be taken at the Federal level; two, steps would be taken in the ACT to create those longer leases - then yes, Ms McRae would have me on toast; but I did not say that.

My comment about this happening before the end of the year came in respect of the legislative steps taken by the Federal Government. It is clear that what I was saying was that the Federal Government, I hoped, would take the steps at the Federal level to free up this power and we then would be able to create 999-year leases, "we" being the ACT Legislative Assembly.

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