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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4806 ..
MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Clearly, from the Chief Minister's response, our first venture in offshore fundraising is an outstanding success. Given that, does the Government have it in mind to pursue a second float at some time in the future?
MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the Government will be looking very seriously at the best ways of refinancing ACT Government debt. We have managed to raise $A70m in the Japanese market. The thing that is very interesting about this, Mr Speaker, is that we save $150,000-plus a year by going into this sort of an arrangement rather than borrowing in our traditional ways. We will continue to look at the best ways possible to refinance our debt. One thing that is most important about debt financing generally is that it is well balanced, Mr Speaker; that all the eggs are not in one basket; that we make sure that any offshore borrowings that we are involved in are appropriately hedged on the market. That will continue to happen, and we will continue to have a balanced borrowing portfolio, Mr Speaker.
MR BERRY: My question is to Mr Humphries in his capacity as Minister for Land and Minister for Planning. Minister, in your tabling statement on the Government's response to the Stein report - you might recall this - you said:
... this Government will not seek, during the term of this Assembly, to change the current system of tenure to freehold or perpetual leasehold, notwithstanding our preferred policy to move towards perpetual leasehold.
I will repeat that:
... this Government will not seek, during the term of this Assembly, to change the current system of tenure to freehold or perpetual leasehold, notwithstanding our preferred policy to move towards perpetual leasehold.
Minister, can you explain the move to change the Federal Land Act to enable 999-year leases in the ACT, or did it happen without your knowledge?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, first of all, I must say that I am referring to us, the ACT Government. Much as I would love to be able to direct the Federal Government - I can assure you that we could all think of some wonderful things to do, if we had that power, Mr Speaker - - -
Mr Berry: I take a point of order. I think the Minister is pretending to be a little bit obtuse. I know he is sharper than that. The question that was asked of him was whether he can explain the move to change the Federal Land Act. Did it happen without his knowledge?
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