Page 500 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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everything is fine. Here is a pretty special quote from Minister Barr just a year ago, “The lease variation charge is excellent public policy and will not be changed.” He said, “The lease variation charge is excellent public policy and will not be changed.”
Further context for this is as follows. It was at PAC on 21 February where there was some great questioning by my colleague and shadow treasurer, Mr Smyth. He asked:
Given the lease variation charge has not delivered that which you have promised and you have now downgraded the estimated take this year from something like $23 million to $19 million, when will you admit that the lease variation charge has failed?
Mr Barr’s response was:
The lease variation charge is excellent public policy and will not be changed.
Mr Smyth posed:
Is it not becoming, for instance, your mining tax—
Mr Barr responded, “No.” Mr Smyth goes on:
in that it has lots of promise but fails to deliver?
Mr Barr replied, “No.” We were told that the lease variation charge is excellent public policy and will not be changed. It seems that Mr Barr was wrong. Either he was wrong, is wrong or he has been rolled. This would have to be, I think, the first time in the history of the world that a government had excellent public policy, still thinks it is excellent public policy, but repeals their own policy. When it comes down to it, the government’s stubbornness is getting in the way of good policy and Canberrans are paying the price. The opposition wants lasting changes to the planning and regulatory regime so that it instils certainty in the construction sector.
As I have said before in this place, in our competitive federal model, New South Wales is competing and they are winning. The Queanbeyan council is making land available and, in conjunction with the New South Wales government, they are making it attractive to invest in their state just over the border. Meanwhile, the ACT government is allowing the demise of our economy.
The opposition will do anything we can to avoid further imposts on businesses. We call for certainty for all concerned, whether they be residents, neighbours, planners or the construction sector through a simplified and stable territory plan. At the time of the introduction of the territory plan, the government promised certainty in the planning sector. We have not had it. The government chops and changes their planning policies with complete disregard for those in the sector. We need a simplified territory plan that allows people to understand their rights and responsibilities and that provides opportunities for innovation.
I commend my motion to the Assembly. I congratulate and thank all those in the community who have kept up the fight on these very important issues.
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