Page 3023 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 September 1993
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MR BERRY: When did they come forward? Have they been to you?
Mr Connolly: No.
MR BERRY: No, they have not been to me either. They have not been anywhere near me saying, "Gee, this legislation is crook". They wanted to see it on the table in a hurry, welcomed the sight of it and thought it was a great idea; but a bit of hysteria is whipped up in the community and suddenly there is a scramble to leap on the band wagon. There are not enough seats on the band wagon. Now you will have your chance. You can all have a say in it. You can all have a bit of ownership of the process. For heaven's sake, keep your minds open, and make sure that you have in your minds the care and attention that has to be given to mentally dysfunctional people, not just yourselves.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
BETTERMENT ARRANGEMENTS
Min
isterial Statement
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning): Madam Speaker, I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on betterment.
Leave granted.
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, during the August sittings I advised the Assembly that the review of the current betterment arrangements was nearly finished. The application of betterment had been monitored for some period. In March this year I indicated that I was reviewing the policy. My unstated timetable has been to effect any change before the new Territory Plan becomes operative. While this statement is being made on budget day, it is not related to the budget. Indeed, for the 1993-94 financial year it is not expected that there will be increased revenue as a result of the changes I am announcing.
The review has been completed. After much consideration, the Government has decided to make a number of significant changes to the way betterment is applied. However, before proceeding to detail those changes, I believe that it is important to put the whole issue of betterment into context. It had always been the intention of the founders of the Federation that the system of land ownership in the Australian Capital Territory should be leasehold. In the conferences leading up to the establishment of the Territory, concerns were expressed that speculators should not be allowed to obtain unreasonable profits from ownership of land. Of equal concern was the belief that the cost of creating the capital be offset against the revenue obtained by renting the land.
These sentiments, which were strongly influenced by the then popular theories of the land economist Henry George, were reflected in the subsequent debates that took place in parliament on the establishment of the Territory's leasehold system. The leasehold system has also enabled the governments of the Territory to maintain effective control over the development and the use of land. It would be true to say that the leasehold system envisaged in the early part of this century differs markedly from that which exists now. In what was acknowledged as one
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