Page 990 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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this - the commercial tenancy relationship regulated by legislation needs very careful consideration or else damage to private sector confidence and investment could well result. This indeed would be disastrous for Canberra, and certainly both landlords and tenants could suffer more.
It is absolutely essential for future employment growth that private sector confidence and investment must remain. Very careful steps should be taken which would in no way discourage any new ventures. As most of us are aware, some apprehension already exists among commercial investors with Canberra's leasehold title system.
As I have said earlier, I support the motion, as it would be proper to allow commercial landlords and tenants to share their experiences - both good and bad, I am sure - with the committee. The committee would then be in a better position to make a judgment. As we see from the notice paper, this issue is not a new one, Mr Speaker. A working party was set up in 1984, and a draft business leases review ordinance was prepared.
Somehow the Labor Government could not bring itself to do anything about it then. It is, I suppose, perhaps ironic that the first time that this came up was, I think, as far back as 1980. It was in the old House of Assembly, and Minister Kelly was the person who insisted then that something needed to be done to legalise the situation in relation to commercial landlord and tenancy agreements.
One point I forgot to mention is that any emphasis on fair dealing obviously necessitates the establishment of criteria by which one can judge what is fair. Difficulties need to be defined in the same manner. What is a difficulty to one person may well be considered no difficulty at all by another. It must also be remembered that judges delivering contract law decisions have always had an option of striking down a contract if they believed the contract was not fairly entered into.
Those of us in this Assembly are representative of many interests, many of them competing with one another for dominance in either market share or contractual situations. Sometimes our social responsibilities are unable to prove palatable for one or more interest groups. I am sure, however, a committee, as proposed, will be best suited to make recommendations which will remove that burning issue in the community. As I said a little while ago, it has been a burning issue now for quite some time - since 1980.
MR COLLAERY (4.13): I have just a few words to say, Mr Speaker. I endorse most of what has been said in this chamber today, particularly the remarks of my colleague Mr Jensen. Indeed one does realise that there are difficult questions of contract and issues of principle involved in landlord-tenancy law, but very often we must recognise that the positions are unequal and that very often a tenant is not in an evenly balanced situation and therefore
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