Mr WOOD - 2002-08-20
Your government has recently announced the possible subdivision of a further 700 blocks of land in the Finniss River area. What is the government doing about local government in the Dundee, Finniss, Silkwood and Leaning Tree/Marrakai subdivision areas? As these areas do not have a rate base, does the budget include …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! There are two parts to it. One, one question and, secondly, the questions are getting too long. I think there are at least three parts to this question already.
Madam SPEAKER: The minister can always pass the question to the minister responsible.
Mr WOOD: I do not think the question was too long.
As these areas do not have a rate base, does the budget include a fee for the maintenance of roads and rubbish tips, and how much is it; and does the government support the principle that freehold land owners in some parts of the Territory should not have to pay rates and others do?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question, as long as it is. I have had no approaches formally. There is no doubt that work has been going on with DIPE. I am sure my colleague, the Minister for DIPE, would like to respond to the part of the question in respect of the rates etc, shortly.
However, in respect of Dundee, my department is meeting with Dundee residents. It is important that we talk through local government with them; they have some ideas. There are concerns out there. On one hand, I have been told people really enjoy living out there. They bought land and they knew that they were getting into a situation where they were going to be without those types of services – power, water, sewerage etc - but that is what they wanted.
On the other hand, people have bought land fairly cheaply, moved out there, and are now looking for these services. As was said in this House last week by one of the government ministers – I am not quite sure who, but I remember the discussion and debate about it, and I think it was the Chief Minister - we want to make sure we start preparing and putting infrastructure in place properly before these blocks are going out for sale. Therefore, we do not create this expectation where people buy land and then expect the services should automatically follow. We have to be smarter, and that means being better than the former government in being able to plan the infrastructure properly.
I am quite happy to report back to the member for Nelson on the consultations and discussions my departmental officers are having with Dundee residents. We do have people there who are vocal and concerned about where we are going with this, but we need to do it properly.
In respect of the other half of the question, I would like to pass that onto Minister Vatskalis.
Mr VATSKALIS (Lands and Planning): I thank the member for his question. Yes, we have a problem with who is going to pay for the maintenance and construction of the roads because the previous government released land which was not serviced and was not incorporated. Land releases like that never happen anywhere else in Australia. Not only did they release land that was not serviced, a few years later they put in a school and a clinic. Again, there is no power, water, sewerage; there is no service. Where there are no roads, they put the school and the clinic. What it really did was attract more people to an unserviced area to live.
This is quite right, the first half of the question is, what happened to our rubbish tips. I remember very well as an environmental health officer going to Dundee Beach and then writing to the then Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment advising him that what was happening down there was illegal, and how to rectify it. I was ignored several times until, before the elections, money all of a sudden was found and the tip was cleared. These things do not happen anywhere in Australia. It happens only in third world countries, in Uganda somewhere, not in Australia.
The problem we have now is, we have land that is not serviced and not incorporated and, as a result, we cannot get any money from the federal government for the roads, because the federal government allocates money only to local government. So we have something around our neck, because that previous government released land that was unserviced. I do not know for what reason - I suspect why, but I cannot state that publicly. The problem is, here we have to spend $1m-odd to put in water, $1m to put in power, $1m to seal the roads.
This is a mistake we are never going to repeat again. That is the reason why we said, in the Finniss area, if someone wants to develop land, he has to cough up $10 000 per block to a trust account so we can use those funds to seal the roads and provide the necessary services.
My department is looking at different ways of actually providing the services to Dundee, and at the same time provide a system of rating. We will have discussions with Litchfield Shire Council and the Dundee Progress Association, or we can amend the existing legislation to rate the properties there. That is the only way we can go back now and get some money and provide some services to the people at Dundee. They deserve those services. I know they bought the blocks unserviced, but a lot of them have now sold the blocks, and we have a second generation of owners who demand the services because, when you live in Australia in 2002, you demand running water in your house, electricity, and sealed roads.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! There are two parts to it. One, one question and, secondly, the questions are getting too long. I think there are at least three parts to this question already.
Madam SPEAKER: The minister can always pass the question to the minister responsible.
Mr WOOD: I do not think the question was too long.
As these areas do not have a rate base, does the budget include a fee for the maintenance of roads and rubbish tips, and how much is it; and does the government support the principle that freehold land owners in some parts of the Territory should not have to pay rates and others do?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question, as long as it is. I have had no approaches formally. There is no doubt that work has been going on with DIPE. I am sure my colleague, the Minister for DIPE, would like to respond to the part of the question in respect of the rates etc, shortly.
However, in respect of Dundee, my department is meeting with Dundee residents. It is important that we talk through local government with them; they have some ideas. There are concerns out there. On one hand, I have been told people really enjoy living out there. They bought land and they knew that they were getting into a situation where they were going to be without those types of services – power, water, sewerage etc - but that is what they wanted.
On the other hand, people have bought land fairly cheaply, moved out there, and are now looking for these services. As was said in this House last week by one of the government ministers – I am not quite sure who, but I remember the discussion and debate about it, and I think it was the Chief Minister - we want to make sure we start preparing and putting infrastructure in place properly before these blocks are going out for sale. Therefore, we do not create this expectation where people buy land and then expect the services should automatically follow. We have to be smarter, and that means being better than the former government in being able to plan the infrastructure properly.
I am quite happy to report back to the member for Nelson on the consultations and discussions my departmental officers are having with Dundee residents. We do have people there who are vocal and concerned about where we are going with this, but we need to do it properly.
In respect of the other half of the question, I would like to pass that onto Minister Vatskalis.
Mr VATSKALIS (Lands and Planning): I thank the member for his question. Yes, we have a problem with who is going to pay for the maintenance and construction of the roads because the previous government released land which was not serviced and was not incorporated. Land releases like that never happen anywhere else in Australia. Not only did they release land that was not serviced, a few years later they put in a school and a clinic. Again, there is no power, water, sewerage; there is no service. Where there are no roads, they put the school and the clinic. What it really did was attract more people to an unserviced area to live.
This is quite right, the first half of the question is, what happened to our rubbish tips. I remember very well as an environmental health officer going to Dundee Beach and then writing to the then Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment advising him that what was happening down there was illegal, and how to rectify it. I was ignored several times until, before the elections, money all of a sudden was found and the tip was cleared. These things do not happen anywhere in Australia. It happens only in third world countries, in Uganda somewhere, not in Australia.
The problem we have now is, we have land that is not serviced and not incorporated and, as a result, we cannot get any money from the federal government for the roads, because the federal government allocates money only to local government. So we have something around our neck, because that previous government released land that was unserviced. I do not know for what reason - I suspect why, but I cannot state that publicly. The problem is, here we have to spend $1m-odd to put in water, $1m to put in power, $1m to seal the roads.
This is a mistake we are never going to repeat again. That is the reason why we said, in the Finniss area, if someone wants to develop land, he has to cough up $10 000 per block to a trust account so we can use those funds to seal the roads and provide the necessary services.
My department is looking at different ways of actually providing the services to Dundee, and at the same time provide a system of rating. We will have discussions with Litchfield Shire Council and the Dundee Progress Association, or we can amend the existing legislation to rate the properties there. That is the only way we can go back now and get some money and provide some services to the people at Dundee. They deserve those services. I know they bought the blocks unserviced, but a lot of them have now sold the blocks, and we have a second generation of owners who demand the services because, when you live in Australia in 2002, you demand running water in your house, electricity, and sealed roads.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016