Page 2739 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Mr Corbell: Yes, because that was his deposit. He did not pay for it, so he lost his deposit. It is as simple as that.
MRS DUNNE: If the government had done due diligence, it would never have allowed this person to become a preferred bidder in the first place. He does not have a very good record at auction.
Mr Corbell: He lost his deposit because he did not pay for the land.
MRS DUNNE: He lost a large amount of money that he was encouraged to put down as a deposit by officials of the Gungahlin Development Authority. This minister ruined the reputation of this territory as a place to do business, just as he is doing again here. Will he not learn the lessons of Harrison stage 1? We will again reap the benefits because, whatever happens in relation to EpiCentre, I predict that it will end in the courts. Someone will take this matter to the courts. It will be taken to court principally because of the mishandling of this whole process by bureaucrats in the Land Development Agency and the ACT Planning and Land Authority. It will cost us dearly in our reputation as a place to do business.
When we come to the appropriate way of doing things, I think we should also dance lightly across the treatment of people in the Molonglo Valley. There have been three substantive debates in this place in relation to the Molonglo Valley. It is now nearly a year since the leases expired and there is no resolution to those matters. There are lessees in possession of three separate leases there.
Most of the lessees are fairly elderly. They cannot get a resolution to these matters. At the moment, they are being held up because they are attempting to make FOI requests in relation to documents that relate to their own leases. These matters are being held up by the territory and they have been put through the court system. It is entirely unreasonable for a government which flaunts its openness and accountability to use the FOI act to prevent lessees from obtaining information about their own leases. The fact that these people are being put through the wringer yet again by this government is entirely inappropriate.
Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I wish to raise a point of order. Mrs Dunne should be aware that the commonwealth government was also a party to that AAT dispute. The Howard government took the same position as the ACT government.
MRS DUNNE: He can close the debate and he can say anything he likes. But, of course, he really finds it inconvenient because this minister’s treatment of the people who live in the Molonglo Valley is a watchword in shame. I would like to turn to some of the comments made by Dr Foskey in relation to land development and development reform.
I can never get over the improbability of the Greens, who spend their time saying, “What we want in this world is affordable housing. But we are opposed to infill. We are opposed to greenfield development. We cannot have urban sprawl. We cannot have high rise. Every man and his dog should be allowed to appeal against everything.” What will happen is that no-one will have a house that they can afford to live in—a high-standard
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