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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3645 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
alternative to a conventional road that simply travels across the ground a very welcome suggestion. I value the suggestion made. I endorse Mrs Dunne making the suggestion. I think that, whatever government of the future has to consider the building of such a road, if it comes to that point, it would be well advised to consider options like that.
MR CORBELL: Minister, was this proposal developed in your office? Since the Sport Minister, Mr Stefaniak, has used a member of his staff to announce Government policy on sport, is your staff member doing the same thing in relation to the John Dedman Parkway?
MR HUMPHRIES: Obviously, a lot more ideas get churned up and developed in my office than get developed in yours. I do not know whether Mrs Dunne thought of the idea while she was sitting at her desk at work, at her desk at home, or in the car between the two places. I do not really care, to be quite frank. But I do know, Mr Speaker, that, when members of my party - whether they are endorsed candidates or not - come forward with constructive suggestions to deal with this community's problems, I am going to be supporting them all the way in those circumstances. I happen to think that the suggestion about a tunnel is an idea very much worth considering.
MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, my question is also to Mr Humphries as Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. I am concerned, Mr Speaker, because I can feel a sense in the Assembly that we are all going to say, "Okay, let us bring on the John Dedman Parkway so that we can get rid of him". But I know what would happen: He would move across to opposition and say, "I can be honest now". Minister, I refer to longstanding complaints from residents of Morant Circuit, Kambah. You will notice, Minister, that I take a broad view of Canberra. I am not just electorate focused - although I like to look after my electorate, too. The complaints are with respect to a resident of the circuit who has unapproved buildings on the block and who maintains the block in a cluttered and unclean state, with unsuitable border fencing and so on. Compliance orders have been issued in the past, and sometimes the block is cleaned up; but the history is that it does not remain that way for very long. I might remind you, Minister, that a case study of these complaints even appeared in the Stein report into the administration of the leasehold system, at pages 206, 207 and so on. The problem has existed, as I understand it, since 1979. Minister, what are you going to do to ensure that compliance orders are implemented?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I have had some correspondence, I think, about this particular block, although not in recent days; so, I cannot give Mr Moore extremely up-to-date information about this. Let me say that I have indicated to officers of PALM that I consider enforcement of those provisions in the Land Act to be important and that I want them to be actively considered, rather than treated as verbiage which is more honoured in the breach than enforced. I am aware, nonetheless, that enforcement of those sorts of provisions has always been extremely difficult and it has often been very difficult to persuade people to accept that strong action needs to be taken in those circumstances.
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