Page 1834 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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Secondly, I would ask the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure to consider and make recommendations on the relevance and adequacy of the provisions of the Legislative Assembly (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Act 2012. In doing so, the motion will ask the committee to consider and make recommendations on the capacity of the Office of the Legislative Assembly to provide administrative support to the Speaker in the performance of the Speaker’s roles and functions relating to officers of the Legislative Assembly.
Finally, members, in engaging the reviewer for the strategic review, it became apparent that—and I have touched on this matter before; there are a number of amendments making the Auditor-General an officer of the Assembly—some clumsiness has come into the process which made the process of appointing a strategic reviewer somewhat slow. Indeed, these matters cross over to other officers of the Assembly, and I have convened a general meeting of the officers of the Assembly for next week and will raise these matters with them.
I thank Mr Pearson for his report and I commend the Audit Office on the work that they do on behalf of the Assembly and the people of the ACT.
Unit Titles (Management) Amendment Bill 2016
Debate resumed from 4 May 2016, on motion by Mr Coe:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Capital Metro, Minister for Health, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Climate Change) (3:10): The underlying policy intent of Mr Coe’s bill, which is before us today, is to guarantee fair liability for water usage in mixed use unit title developments. While the government agrees that this is an objective that needs to be supported, the amendments in the bill are likely to have a range of unintended and broader consequences for unit title developments throughout the ACT, and, as such, the government cannot support the proposals in this bill today.
The government is aware that there are issues with the laws in the ACT in the context of mixed use developments, in particular in regard to water usage. The Unit Titles (Management) Act governs all 4,203 unit plans in the ACT, covering approximately 43,970 residential units. Given this scope and the complex nature of the act, discrete amendments do have the potential to have substantial and wideranging implications for a significant number of Canberrans.
The government recognises the many benefits of encouraging mixed use development, including fostering more vibrant and lively places in the territory, stimulating activity and supporting economic growth. The Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate is therefore currently investigating strata reform options that will support better management of mixed use developments, but any changes will only work when developed considering all the issues raised by mixed use developments rather than simply considering one issue such as water, which this bill does, alone.
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