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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Wednesday, 3 March 2004) . . Page.. 641 ..

talk about proposals put forward by the community that need their assistance to come to fruition.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning (12.23): The government is happy to support the motion today. We are quite happy to make information available to members so that they can get a clear understanding, unlike that from Mrs Dunne, of this very important and at times complex issue.

Canberra is an ageing community and it is estimated that by 2030 about 22 per cent of the population will be over the age of 65 compared with only eight per cent in 2001. In 2001 the largest proportion of people aged 65 years plus, 24 per cent of all people over the age of 65, lived in the Belconnen area of Canberra. Like other parts of the community, older Canberrans need a diverse range of accommodation ranging from independent living units to residential care facilities such as hostels and nursing homes. The government is committed to planning for the needs of older Canberrans and is working with the Commonwealth government, the community and the private sector to respond to the need for older persons accommodation. This commitment can be outlined in a number of ways.

Firstly, I would like to address the proposal that Mrs Dunne referred to in relation to the Little Company of Mary and Southern Cross Homes (NSW) Inc. The government has announced its in principle agreement to the sale of land to the Little Company of Mary in Bruce for a mixture of residential aged care beds and independent living units. Contrary to the assertion by Mrs Dunne, the previous Liberal government never gave its approval for the sale of that lease. As Mrs Dunne will know, the cabinet requirement then, as now, was that all direct grants had to be agreed by cabinet. Mr Smyth never took that proposal to cabinet. He might have said in his letter, “I, as minister, am happy to give in principle agreement.” But the government never did because he never took it to cabinet. That is the first myth in Mrs Dunne’s assertion.

Secondly, in relation to the Little Company of Mary, a range of issues need to be addressed prior to the grant of a lease. Before land is granted, it is common for any issues that are identified through, say, a preliminary assessment to be taken account of in the lease and development conditions. That is why a preliminary assessment is required as a matter of course if it meets the thresholds under the Land Act before a granted lease is made, so that any issues that need to be addressed as a result of that preliminary assessment can, where appropriate, be incorporated into the lease and development conditions. Clearly, that is different from a scenario where there is already an existing leaseholder.

The Little Company of Mary proposal at South Bruce is progressing through a preliminary assessment. It has identified a range of issues to do with potential bushfire risk and these need to be addressed. The government are not trying to draw this process out. We are simply applying the requirements of the Land Act, and the Land Act says that you must undertake a preliminary assessment for a development of a particular size. The Little Company of Mary proposal meets those thresholds and the assessment has to be done. As Mrs Dunne would be aware, there is also considerable community interest in the site, so it is not as though it is the planning authority going through this because it is being bureaucratic; it is going through it, firstly, because it has a statutory obligation to

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