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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (30 June) . . Page.. 1893 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Not the Commonwealth, Mr Speaker, the Territory. The Territory has a clear responsibility to uphold its obligations under this lease. The Territory is required to make certain declarations before the lease can be issued anew and these include, as that clause outlines, that the land is not required for subdivision, that the land is not required for any Territory purpose, that the land is not required for any national land purpose, that the premises are declared to be available for lease, that the level of rent and reappraisal of rent has occurred, and that other terms and conditions are determined. Those are all requirements on the ACT Government, not on the Commonwealth, and the ACT Government has not made all of those determinations. Because the ACT Government has not made all of those determinations the Commonwealth is saying to the dragway, "Your lease is unenforceable. We cannot give you a new 10-year lease". It is as simple as that, Mr Speaker. This Government has not lived up to its obligations.

The Minister has consistently claimed in this place and outside in the media that this is not an issue for the ACT Government because the ACT is not the landlord - they are his words - and that the land is national land. I think Mr Smyth, in some comments on 25 March, said I was wrong to make the claim that this was a responsibility of the ACT Government and in fact it was a responsibility of the Commonwealth Government because the land was a particular colour on the Territory Plan. The colour that is used for national land - I forget the colour that Mr Smyth used - is a lovely grey colour. Well, I had a look at the Territory Plan, Mr Speaker, and this is not a grey bit. It is a different colour. It is a colour relating to land which is vested in the Territory, so we just need to be conscious of that, Mr Speaker. There are, however, certain covenants on the use of that land which do relate to national land purposes. I think it is important to make that distinction to the Minister. Nevertheless, the point is this: The Territory has obligations under the lease. It must make those determinations, not the Commonwealth Government.

The ACT Government, I have to say, Mr Speaker, has been intensely hypocritical on this issue. The ACT Government has been saying in the Assembly and to the dragway and to the ACT community that it supports the dragway; that it wants to see it have a long-term lease at its current site and that it is doing everything it possibly can. Indeed, on 29 January this year, the chief executive of the Department of Urban Services, Mr Rod Gilmour, as he was then, wrote to counsel representing the Drag Racing Club and in that he said:

That is what the Minister for Urban Services has been saying. Mr Speaker, it is very interesting to note that on 28 August last year, four months before Mr Smyth wrote his letter, the Chief Minister received a letter from Mr Terry Snow, the executive chairman of the Canberra International Airport Group. In that letter Mr Snow said:

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