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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1223 ..

It should be noted that the definition of a "concessional lease" was drafted into legislation in 1990 only for the purpose of determining the level of betterment that should apply to particular lease variations. It was not intended to clarify the current status of the many leases that had already, at that time, been granted for less than full market value-and it did not achieve that.

What the definition did achieve, however, was an assurance that successive ACT governments would be presented on a regular basis with questions in the media and this Assembly about the number and nature of "concessional leases". I don't think it will ever be possible to respond to those questions with great accuracy.

In order to answer Mr Corbell's specific questions accurately, it would be necessary to conduct a manual search of all leases that are likely to qualify as "concessional". That very expensive process would serve only to answer the questions-no other purpose is served unless and until those leases are varied other than to record, to the best of our knowledge, the leases that have been granted for less than market value.

I believe that, while that may have been a worthy objective at the outset of our leasehold history,. the opportunity is well and truly lost, and the most important thing now is to ensure that concessional leases are properly administered.

I have attached a printout of leases issued for purposes that would normally attract some concession. The list, which has been compiled by PALM with some difficulty by combining several old databases, is provided as a guide only. While the list refers to approximately 1400 leases, it is not necessarily complete, and I cannot guarantee its accuracy. While some concessional leases may not appear in the list. some non-concessional may have been included.

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