Page 987 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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currently have to bear simply to do business, they will not drown alone. With the poor employment growth we are witnessing as a result of Commonwealth government cutbacks and a downturn in building projects, the need for a healthy retail sector is absolutely vital to ensure that our school leavers, as well as many of those people who have jobs now, have a better future to look forward to than the dole queue.
This motion is not about landlord bashing, although, with some of the responses we have received to our survey, I suspect that there are a few retail tenants who would be happy for us to indulge in that. It is about providing a fair and equal chance for Canberra's retailers and, in so doing, it is about guaranteeing the continued health of the ACT economy. Unless retail tenants can negotiate affordable rents and lease conditions; unless they have access to reasonable means of settling disputes with their landlords; unless they have some protection against exploitation, such as that provided by the proposed business leases review ordinance of 1984 which, despite its advantages, remains in a legislative limbo; unless they have, in short, the right to equity which only this Assembly can give them, we are committing not only them but also ourselves to a grim future indeed.
Mr Speaker, I urge the Assembly to give full support to this motion to refer the matter to a select committee. I understand that the Government will be supporting this proposal, with some amendments which I am sure we will talk about later. In fact, I seem to recall that they will include the membership of a committee, which we are happy to accept.
We have some difficulty, however, with the proposed amendment relating to deleting "November" and inserting "1990", which would make this report due on the first sitting day in 1990. I know that the committee operation we have at the moment has been under some strain in the last few weeks. That is because we have had a number of select committees that are due to report at almost the same time. I understand, Mr Speaker, that it will be possible for the committee staff, provided we get the necessary budget to enable sufficient staff to run - I am sure the Chief Minister is aware of this and of the requirements - and there should be no problem in meeting that requirement.
I note the Deputy Chief Minister's comment in relation to the fact that if the committee wishes to report earlier it is quite within its rights to do so, which may be quite appropriate. However, at this stage, Mr Speaker, we would seek to have retained in this motion the November 1989 reporting date. On those few words, I close my remarks on this very important and critical issue to some members of the backbone of the business community in the ACT.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister)(4.03): As Mr Jensen said, the Government supports this motion, but we propose some
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