Page 3672 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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MR SMYTH: As so often happens with this government, they do not keep their promises. You got up and said, “The commence and complete fees are gone.”
Mr Barr: It is a 400 per cent cut in the commence and complete—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr Barr!
MR SMYTH: You got up and said, “The commence and complete fees are gone.”
Mr Barr: No, I didn’t.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr Barr!
Mr Barr: I know what I said.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Barr!
MR SMYTH: You didn’t do it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, can you sit down? Mr Barr, I have called you to order on three or four occasions and you have steadfastly ignored me. I am now warning you. Do not interject.
MR SMYTH: But there we are; we have the Treasurer making announcements—announcements that he could not get through cabinet. He mentions that things have changed. Yes, there have been some changes, and there is a lot of angst about some of the changes as well, and the way that they are affecting people.
The second point is the application of the law. I can remember Mr Seselja and I quizzing the minister about things like commence and complete fees on some very significant sites in Civic where in some cases there has not been activity for many years. In one case there has been virtually no activity, although it has been privately owned. The question for the Treasurer would be about the application of the law, how it is affecting sites and whether or not we have favouritism or whether or not there is a system at work, because it is very unclear to people outside this place as to how the government is applying this law.
It is interesting that we have a community facility that is ready to go, but because of circumstances—and there were circumstances; the family claims that it was not land banking and I have seen no evidence that it has been land banking. We all know what happened in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the way the financial markets changed. They now find themselves in a position where they can proceed, but one of the impediments now is that, because of the government’s commence and complete system, they find themselves with this enormous bill.
The question for the government is: do they want a $4.8 million development? Do they want the 70-odd jobs that this will create? More importantly, beyond that, do they actually want the facility itself and what it will create in terms of wellbeing for the people of Tuggeranong?
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