Page 2883 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 August 2005

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MR CORBELL: I move amendments Nos 1 to 6 [see schedule 3 at page 2941]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the amendments.

These government amendments are in response to further feedback from a range of stakeholders with an interest in this legislation, in particular industry stakeholders but also other territory agencies and the ACT Law Society. For the benefit of members I will briefly outline the purpose of these amendments. Amendment 1 provides for new clauses 10A, 10B and 10C.

New clause 10A inserts a number of new sections. These sections make provision for the amendment of the development statement for an uncompleted stage of a staged development and refer to the criteria that need to be met or to be taken into account by the Planning and Land Authority where agreement has been obtained for the amendment and where agreement is not available due to various circumstances. A new clause 10B inserts provisions to restrict the application of section 32 to amendments to the development statement to which section 31A does not apply. New clause 10C inserts the provision to restrict the application of section 33 to amendments made under section 30 (2).

The second amendment arises for the renumbering of the act following republication. The third amendment provides for a new clause 14A, which inserts a new section 64A. This section deals with contributions to the general and sinking funds for a staged development where the development has not been completed. Amendment 4 provides for a new clause 16, which omits proposed section 110A (2) and substitutes a new section 110A (2), with respect to those who are entitled to vote on a motion for an uncompleted stage or a completed stage of a staged development.

Amendment 5 provides for a new clause 17 which inserts a new section 132 (3). This section inserts a new definition of “parcel” for a staged development. The definition is restricted to buildings at completed stages, so the owners’ corporation only has to insure the building in the completed stages. Finally, amendment No 6 is to the schedule. Amendment 1 (1) provides for a new section 179 (5) by substituting section 179 (5) in the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991. This section has been punctuated to assist in interpretation. I commend the amendments to members.

MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (12.01): As flagged when we discussed this recently, the opposition is happy to support this bill and will also be happy to support the amendments. These amendments were brought forward in the last session of the Assembly and we wanted some time to consider it. The minister agreed to adjourn the debate, so we appreciate that. We have had the opportunity to have a briefing with ACTPLA officials, and that was most helpful. We have also consulted with industry groups. In the main, the feedback was that the bill as a whole is a step in the right direction and that the amendments are necessary in some cases and certainly helpful for the most part.

The last time this bill was before the Assembly I spoke about the improvements that this bill will provide in the staged construction of multiunit developments and of the protection that this bill provides for owners in relation to common property and multistaged developments. Finding that balance between favourable conditions for the


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