Page 1724 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2017
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Mr Hanson: Madam Deputy Speaker, if you have just alleged that you have been misled or someone has been misleading, that is a very serious allegation, and I ask that you withdraw.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Hanson. I think I can look after myself.
Amendment negatived.
Proposed new clauses 12A and 12B negatived.
Proposed new clause 12A.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.35): I seek leave to move an amendment to this bill that has not been circulated pursuant to standing order 178A.
Leave granted.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.35): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 5 at page 1790]. I think the issues Mr Coe has dealt with in his amendment are worthy of consideration, but I am hoping—
Mr Coe: So worthy that you copied it.
MS LE COUTEUR: So worthy that we copied it and improved it is our belief. We are working collaboratively in the Assembly, as we should do. Mr Coe proposed an amendment that required both organisations to prepare a report for the Legislative Assembly every quarter that provides details of the land acquisitions and valuations relied on to acquire the land. My alternative amendment creates a notice to report land acquisitions and valuations used in acquisitions to the minister, which he or she must then present to the Legislative Assembly.
We took Mr Coe’s idea and thought we would try to model it on the very similar situation for direct sales. Mr Gentleman tabled one of these quarterly sales reports today. We wanted to do something which follows Mr Coe’s quite reasonable point but that is administratively a little simpler. So the purpose of the amendment—and the purpose of Mr Coe’s amendment—is to provide greater transparency and oversight of land acquisitions, including providing those details to the Legislative Assembly, in response to the Auditor-General’s recommendations in her report into certain land acquisitions in 2016. Under this amendment the CRA and the SLA will be required to provide notice to the minister of any land they have acquired not later than 10 working days after the end of a quarter.
In this statement both entities would need to include the details of any land purchased and the valuations relied upon to purchase the land. The process has already been established for notifying the Assembly of direct sales under the Planning and Development Act, section 242. It is less administratively burdensome than the one Mr Coe was suggesting and ensures that the minister is the one to provide notice to the Assembly, which is appropriate. I thank Mr Coe for the work that he did on it, and I have taken the liberty of presenting a refinement to Mr Coe’s idea.
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