Page 6121 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010

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This instrument provides an increase of $19,527 in expenses on behalf of the territory appropriation for the ACT Planning and Land Authority to facilitate the payment of compensation for lessee-owned improvements to the lessees of block 751 district Gungahlin, withdrawn for inclusion in the direct sale of land to Exhibition Park Corporation for the development of a tourist accommodation facility; and block 1 section 189 district of Ngunnawal, withdrawn for the inclusion in the Ngunnawal 2C development.

I commend the paper to the Assembly.

Committee report—government response

Papers and statement by minister

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations): For the information of members, I present the following papers:

Estimates 2010-2011—Select Committee—Report—Appropriation Bill 2010-2011—Government response in relation to the change of use charge, incorporating—

Final Report on the Review of the Change of Use Charges System in the ACT, commissioned by ACT Treasury.

Reforming the Change of Use Charges (CUC) in the ACT: An independent economic assessment, prepared by John Piggott, dated 25 November 2010.

Review of Empirical Estimation of the effects of Change of Use Charges (CUC) in the ACT, prepared by Mardi Dungey, dated 29 November 2010.

Review of the Change of Use Charge System in the ACT—Regulatory Impact Statement.

I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the papers.

Leave granted.

MS GALLAGHER: I have tabled three independent reports and the regulatory impact statement on the codification of the change of use charge. Members are aware that the government has been working on the codification of the change of use charge system.

Quite expectedly, the project has drawn considerable interest, particularly with regard to what would appear to be a significant increase in the charge as reflected in the draft schedules that were released for consultation.

The 2010-11 Select Committee on Estimates recommended that the government evaluate the impacts of the change of use charge and that it does not create barriers to urban densification. A subsequent motion in the Assembly noted that this work was underway.

I should clarify at the outset that the review and the discussion are not about whether there should be a change of use charge or not. This is not a debate about the betterment principle, which forms an integral part of the territory’s leasehold system.


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