Page 110 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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acquirer is the Suburban Land Agency, the report must include how the acquisition complies with directions made under the relevant legislation and the objects and functions of the authority.
The report must outline the current and future status of the acquired land under the Territory Plan, including any condition on the crown lease. It must also be demonstrated how the acquisition, including the intended use of land, supports development that is in the public interest and environmentally sustainable. A summary of any information considered by the acquirer, including advice from the Head of Service and directors-general, and any risk assessment, must be included. This quarterly report may be combined with the reports presented to the Assembly by the relevant minister under the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017.
Under section 104AE(3), within 10 working days of presenting the quarterly report to the Assembly the minister must give another copy of the report to the relevant committee, the public accounts committee. This report includes the unpublished identifiers for public housing acquisitions and the names of any private individuals who sold the land to the territory. This information is kept confidential to preserve the privacy of public housing tenants and individual sellers. Section 104AE(4) sets out relevant definitions for the section. Finally, clause 7 inserts terms into note 2 of the dictionary of the existing act.
Whilst this may sound complex, all of this can and should be done at the moment. What we are simply asking is that it is published. I wish to reiterate once again that this bill is not onerous, and I believe Canberrans expect this sort of transparency. The quarterly reports simply require the publication of the due diligence that all Canberrans would expect to be undertaken before hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars are spent on such acquisitions. This is an effective mechanism that allows for multiple levels of scrutiny.
This quarterly report process is an extension of current legislative probity requirements like those in the CRA and SLA act. It is a reasonable response to extend the scrutiny and probity to encompass all land acquisitions made by the territory. This bill is necessary and Canberrans expect it. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Barr) adjourned to the next sitting.
Urban renewal precincts
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (10.24): I move:
(1) notes that:
(a) much of Canberra was built between the 1950s and the mid-1980s and Canberra’s older Town Centres—Woden, Belconnen and Tuggeranong—are recognised as needing urban renewal;
(b) urban renewal is more than selling vacant sites and approving very tall buildings—it needs more comprehensive strategic planning and delivery
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