Page 4455 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 30 October 2018
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Title read by Clerk.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (11.47): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I am pleased to present the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Amendment Bill 2018. This bill will amend the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017 to ensure that assets, contracts and liabilities of the former Land Development Agency are correctly located to either the City Renewal Authority or the Suburban Land Agency.
When the former Land Development Agency ceased operations on 30 June 2017 the majority of its assets, contracts and liabilities were transferred to the City Renewal Authority or the Suburban Land Agency by notifiable instruments under division 9.6 of the Financial Management Act 1996—the FMA—on 30 June 2017. These instruments are: Notifiable Instrument NI2017-342 Financial Management (Land Development Agency Transfer to City Renewal Authority) Declaration 2017 and Notifiable Instrument NI2017-343 Financial Management (Land Development Agency Transfer to Suburban Land Agency) Declaration 2017.
Former Land Development Agency assets, contracts and liabilities not expressly listed in division 9.6 FMA instruments automatically transferred to the territory represented by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate under division 9.7 of the FMA.
Since the transfers occurred on 30 June 2017 the authority and agency have identified a number of assets, contracts and liabilities that should have been transferred to one of the new entities through the instruments noted above. These include, for example, a potential personal injury claim, project delivery agreements for the development of a number of blocks in Taylor, and unpaid debts to the territory.
In addition, from 1 July 2017 the territory unintentionally became legally responsible for liabilities arising under executed Land Development Agency contracts, for example, sales of land settled or civil works contracts completed before 1 July 2017 but for which the full statutory period of limitation has not concluded.
The territory was not aware of this unintended consequence of the operation of the FMA when the 30 June 2017 instruments were drafted. This is the first time an ACT government entity has been abolished and split into two new entities. In the past when an entity was abolished, the functions and responsibilities were absorbed into one directorate on behalf of the territory and hence this issue under the FMA did not arise.
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