Page 164 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

(2) calls on the Government to provide to the Assembly by the last sitting day of this year:

(a) the changes to governance arrangements that have been made since the Auditor-General’s report was published;

(b) the progress of the McPhee review; and

As is well known to members of this place, the opposition has been probing the government about numerous integrity issues for some time, not the least of which is this very serious issue which became apparent over the last year or so. Through numerous freedom of information requests, questions on notice, questions without notice, title searches and other sources of information, the opposition was able to piece together what was, I think, a bad deal for taxpayers, in particular, with regard to land adjacent to Glebe Park.

The background to this story is particularly important and might be particularly interesting for people who are new to this place. It goes back some time; in actual fact, it goes back to when Ms Le Couteur was in this place last. In 2011 Ms Le Couteur put a question to the then minister, Simon Corbell, and his response regarding the block of land in question was:

The obligation is on the developer, the owner, to construct a car park for public access to Glebe Park as well as to service the adjacent Glebe Park apartments and to provide a million dollars worth of landscaping works as part of that activity as well.

He went on:

We will follow that through with the usual compliance activity and options that are available under the relevant planning legislation.

He went on:

It is not permitted to be used for residential development. The government does not support its use for residential development. The government will not consider any change to the territory plan that permits residential development or indeed any other development beyond that which has already been granted under the lease.

It is an important point, because it is up to the government to actually grant any lease variation. Fast forward about three years, and we are at 14 June 2014. It was at that time that Mr Barr as Treasurer signed a notifiable instrument about how land is to be purchased in this territory. That direction, called the planning and development land acquisition policy framework of 2014, states at 2.1:

All proposed acquisitions are to be assessed against the principles and associated tests provided in this Land Acquisition Policy Framework. All tests must be followed for an acquisition.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video