Page 1313 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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To respond to this recommendation, and recognise where the practical expertise exists within government to deal with the relevant inquiries for major land sales exercises, the LDA will, in conjunction with other relevant agencies, including ACTPLA, obtain relevant statutory information pertaining to the site. This information will be made available as a common resource for any interested party. Should the sales process involve an expression of interest, the LDA will be the point of contact for inquiries made and, where appropriate, the LDA will seek formal advice from relevant agencies for forwarding to inquirers. The LDA will advise inquirers that it will make any such information available to other parties involved in the sale process.
Beyond the expression of interest process, the LDA will formally refer any inquiry made to it from a prospective purchaser to the relevant agency or agencies, for formal advice. Again, the LDA will advise inquirers that it will make any such information available to all parties involved in the sale process. The current ACTPLA/LDA protocol is being reviewed to ensure that these processes are incorporated and separate agreements will be documented with other regulatory agencies to reflect similar arrangements.
The second part of recommendation 2 states:
• Alternatively, ACTPLA and other key regulatory agencies should take responsibility for formally advising LDA about matters important to the sale process to enable LDA to properly inform the market.
The government agrees with the second part of the Auditor-General’s recommendation, that ACTPLA should take responsibility for formally advising the LDA about matters important to the sales process to enable the LDA to properly inform the market once it has formally advised ACTPLA of the sale processes and identified its information needs.
Recommendation 3 from the Auditor-General states:
ACTPLA should undertake further clarification of the Territory’s industrial land use policies, particularly in respect of permissible uses and land use restrictions.
This recommendation is also agreed. In the context of the specific matters raised in the audit report, the current industrial land use policies are sufficiently clear in respect of permissible uses and land restrictions. This relates to issues of clarity in respect of the territory plan in the audit report, which ACTPLA suggests is not in doubt, following legal advice obtained, and if a competitor wishes to dispute it then it is a matter for the courts to decide.
The fact that two parties were prepared to pay $39 million and $38 million—well above the audit’s own value backcast valuation—is a very clear indication that there were no issues of clarity in respect of permissible uses and land use restrictions. The government’s current planning system reform project includes the development of a new territory plan. This includes the development of zones, which will apply the test of permissible uses and land use restrictions to all land use policy areas. The government, the Planning and Land Authority and the Land Development Agency are
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