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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 3466 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

are separately liable for the payment of rates and land tax charges from 30 September 1998 when their respective new leases commenced.

Rates and land tax charges of $9,108 and land rent of $39,931.34, that accrued under the previous lease and remained unpaid by the now defunct ACT Rugby League Incorporated, have been written off as irrecoverable ...

Charges owed by the previous lessee of the entire Rugby League Park site, ACT Rugby League Incorporated, were written-off as irrecoverable on the basis that the previous lessee is a defunct organisation with no funds available to meet unpaid debts.

My question is: How did we get to the stage where we accrued that much indebtedness without taking action against an organisation which has real property? Since this answer to a question on notice have you evolved or contrived a new spin on the reasoning, or is this a bottom-of-the-oval scheme?

Mr Moore: That is a matter of opinion. Mr Speaker, I take the same point of order that Mr Corbell took earlier. The second part of the question is a matter of opinion about whether it is a bottom-of-the-oval scheme or not.

MR SPEAKER: I did not think it was necessary to comment. I thought it was just a rhetorical flourish to finish.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I think all here would be aware that this is a long and involved process that has gone on for something like 15 years. You can look around for simplistic applications like Mr Quinlan is pointing to, or you can look at what happened and see how this process was worked through. Mr Quinlan might not be aware because he was not here last year, and neither was I, but this place passed a special Bill to facilitate the answer to this long and vexing question.

Mr Speaker, this is a problem that the Labor Party were unable to solve. The whole issue of Northbourne Oval was something that Labor, in all their years in office, were not able to come to an agreement on. What they do not realise, Mr Speaker, is that they left yet another dilemma for an incoming Carnell Government to solve. There was a snipe at the Chief Minister and a few words for Mr Hird. Mr Hird is one of the few people who have worked on this to achieve a great outcome for all the rugby league community of the ACT.

Mr Quinlan: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. My question relates to unpaid rates and taxes over the last four years.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you. There is no point of order.

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