Page 2229 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Sitting suspended from 12.30 to 2.00 pm.
Questions without notice
Taxation—Tax Reform Advisory Group
MR COE: Not surprisingly, my final question for the term is to the Chief Minister and Treasurer. In a public accounts hearing on 28 February this year, you admitted that you did not go out to tender and that you and your office hand-picked who would be invited to be part of the Tax Reform Advisory Group. It was also confirmed that you received a draft report related to this in February but that there needed to be revisions to make sure that the Barr government was “completely comfortable” with what was in it. Treasurer, what findings didn’t you like in the original draft, and what was changed to make sure you were “completely comfortable” with what the experts recommended?
MR BARR: There were no changes to anything that the experts recommended.
MR COE: Treasurer, if there were no changes, when did you receive the report, and why haven’t you tabled it prior to today?
MR BARR: The draft report was received earlier in the year and finalised reports were received this month.
MR WALL: Treasurer, how can Canberrans trust what you say, given that you have admitted to stacking the Tax Reform Advisory Group, potentially reworking the final report to ensure that you were “completely comfortable” with it, and then continuing to keep this report hidden and secret from Canberrans for months?
MR BARR: Casting aspersions on the integrity of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute of the ANU and Victoria University shows just how duplicitous and hopeless this opposition is.
Planning—development
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Planning and Land Management and relates to development in the ACT. Minister, why has the government largely failed to address concerns about consultation and poor quality development over the last four years, despite constant pressure from the Greens and the community?
MR GENTLEMAN: I do not agree with the premise of Ms Le Couteur’s question. We have, indeed, improved the aspects of development across the city. The statement of intent for future development was very clear in the way that we will mix 70-30 into the future. But then there are outcomes in building design and quality, as well, that are being addressed by Minister Ramsay at the same time. What we have seen in the last
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