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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (22 June) . . Page.. 1612 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
introduced by the Chief Minister today and was to be debated, I understand, this coming Thursday. Mr Speaker, that Bill is important. On that Bill hinges the entire national reform agenda on financial institutions. If we do not pass that Bill, we put the reform agenda back. It would probably necessitate amendment of legislation in eight other jurisdictions.
Mr Hargreaves: So be it.
MR HUMPHRIES: "So be it", says Mr Hargreaves. That was not what you told the Australian Banking Association yesterday. Your Mr Quinlan said that you understood the importance of the legislation and that you would do your best to make sure that it got through the Assembly this week. Whom do we believe? Do we believe Mr Quinlan when he speaks to the Banking Association, which is extremely upset by the apparent change of heart on the part of the Opposition in the ACT, or do we believe Mr Hargreaves now or Mr Quinlan now? Which is it? I do not know, Mr Speaker, but I do know that the fact remains that this is an important piece of legislation which we must deal with. We cannot deal with it today. It has not been introduced yet. It has to be dealt with later this week. Mr Speaker, the Rates and Land Tax (Amendment) Bill is before the Assembly. If it is not passed by 30 June, then we end up not having a new rating arrangement in place for 1 July.
Mr Hargreaves: Well, that is a shame.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is a shame because the position of people who attempt to pay rates on 1 July is unclear. I wonder whether a person who pays rates on 1 July on the basis of the determination which has applied for this financial year, 1998-99, can rely on that determination for the next financial year's rating level. I do not know, Mr Speaker. I do not think that anybody knows at the moment what the situation will be. The only way of clearing up that uncertainty is by passing this legislation before the end of this sitting week.
There are other important Bills on the table, Mr Speaker, and there are important instruments to be tabled. We have referred already to the Land (Planning and Environment) (Amendment) Bill, which is to come before the house later today and which will clear up uncertainty about the level of betterment charge, change of use charge, in the ACT. We believe that it is important to deal with that in the current fortnight.
There is, finally, the matter of the budget. It is true, Mr Speaker, that we could consider the budget in the period after Wednesday of next week. Obviously, we would not have enough time to deal with it on the last day of next week. We would have only one sitting day next week to deal with the entire budget, which has usually taken us at least 21/2 days and many long nights to deal with in previous years, and I can see no reason why it would not be the same this year. We would have to come back for a further sitting. Then we have the Estimates Committee report, which has not been tabled yet, and the Government's response, which has not been produced yet because we have not seen the report as yet. All that has to be done within a short space of time.
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