Page 734 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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that was submitted after that day. Any application that was already in the system had been submitted on the basis of the then existing arrangements for betterment tax which were obviously agreed by the previous Government. It did nothing to change them and, in all fairness, our legislation cannot be retrospective beyond that point. Clearly, any application that is submitted after the day on which I made that announcement will be assessed at the new rate of betterment. There is no taxation forgone because you cannot make taxation retrospective, and no sensible or reasonable government would make it so.
MR MOORE: I ask a supplementary question. Since the transfer of that lease appears to have been carried out without observation of lease condition 4(e)(i) and if the lessees are found to be in breach of the lease conditions, since the ACT Rugby League clearly has no further use for the site as a sporting body, will the Chief Minister resume the lease and return it to its 1979 condition as a park open to all Canberrans? I have the lease and I can explain that.
MR KAINE: If the lease has been transferred without the approval of the ACT Government or the ACT Administration, then an assessment would have to be made as to whether it were a legal transfer and, if so, whether there was betterment tax or any other tax attaching to that transfer. If so, the tax will be levied. I understand that there is some question about whether the transfer within the Rugby League organisation was in fact a valid transfer and that is being examined. I have had no advice yet as to whether a conclusion has yet been reached on that matter.
Mr Speaker - Party Meetings
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, I direct a question to you. Can you assure this Assembly that, as evidence of your independence, you have not participated in any joint party room meetings of the Alliance Government?
MR SPEAKER: I see that as an affront to me, Mr Whalan. I do not need to verify my independence and my impartiality by attending or not attending a joint party meeting. I put it on the record that I certainly have attended joint party meetings.
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I refer you to the Hansard of 13 February when Trevor Kaine said, at page 33 - - -
Mr Kaine: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I note that the member opposite - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! Please give the standing order number and a small extract from the standing order.
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