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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 654 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

is considered to be confidential in the contract will be unavailable to the public; the rest will be readily available. Had this legislation been in force some time ago, the public would have seen almost all of the Bruce Stadium user agreements within three weeks of them being signed. Another feature of this Bill is the removal of liability from government where they have acted in good faith to comply with the requirement to make contracts public.

Finally, I wish to remind members that no part of this legislation takes away the power of the Assembly to formally demand any government contract and consider its contents in full. I believe this legislation is both long overdue and well balanced and will be good for the Territory. I look forward to working with both Mr Stanhope and Mr Moore in relation to their pieces of legislation. I believe that all of us in the Assembly are moving in the same direction.

Debate (on motion by Ms Carnell ) adjourned.

MACPHERSON COURT DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION 999477

MR HIRD: I seek leave to make a short statement about the motion standing in my on the notice paper relating to the redevelopment of Macpherson Court.

Leave granted.

MR HIRD: The redevelopment of Macpherson Court is an important part of the Government's big-flat strategy. The strategy will see the Government refurbish, redevelop or sell our multiunit complexes. The funds from any such sale will obviously go back into public housing capital expenditure as is required under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, which is binding on all States and Territories. This particular redevelopment will provide a unique mix of public, community and private housing and will put any profits back into social housing programs.

There has been considerable consultation with local residents and others, as I am sure members of the Urban Services Standing Committee will attest. Apart from the usual consultation on the development application, the scale of this development has also meant consultation through a draft variation to the Territory Plan and consultation through the redevelopment of the section master plan. Apart from the Government's consultation through PALM in these processes, the Urban Services Standing Committee also conducted its own consultation before approving both the variation and the section master plan. The project has also been considered by the Majura LAPAC a number of times.

Mr Speaker, following lodgment of the development application for the construction, Community Housing Canberra has been hard at work in discussion with those people who made submissions and objections to their plans. Yesterday, at 10 past five in the afternoon, the final objections were withdrawn and, as there are no objections, PALM has approved the development. I understand that the Commissioner for Land and Planning has indicated he is happy with the process by which the objections were withdrawn.

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