All applications for lease variations and subsequent approvals will be tabled in the Assembly quarterly, the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, announced yesterday.The announcement comes after revelations in The Canberra Times this week that a 99-year lease had been granted to a Canberra businessman over Ginninderra Schoolhouse and surrounds for $70,000 even though there were sub-leases bringing in $75,000 a year.
Mr Wood said, however, that that lease variation had been handled correctly and in the best interests of the Territory.
Mr Wood had approved of the Ginninderra lease after a departmental submission that argued the businessman, Mike St Claire, had been led to believe he would get the lease in 1984 and therefore should have it at 1984 valuation and that good administration and encouragement of private enterprise had led to similar conversions in the past.
In a departmental minute in April, the department offered two other options to the Minister but the submission gave no supporting arguments to either of them: resumption of the existing short-term lease because Mr St Clair was $100,000 in arrears in rent or a lease at 1994 valuation. The Minister rejected both of them.
It was incorrectly reported on Tuesday that the granting of the lease had been done by the department.
Mr Wood said yesterday that all aspects of the leasing process were subject to independent scrutiny by specially trained departmental officers who were not involved in the processing of applications to change leases. This process ensured all changed were made according to the law and government policies. A public register was available at the department, but to add an extra layer of openness and accountability “”the full details of applications to change leases and approvals given will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly”.
It would be done quarterly.
Independent MLA Michael Moore said of the Ginninderra conversion that the Government was hypocritical to cry poor when it granted leases substantially under value.
Mr St Clair said that in 1982 he had been given a verbal undertaking by the then Federal Minister for Capital Territory, Michael Hodgman, that he would get a 99-year lease after he had taken a short-term lease. However, the departmental documents indicate that Mr Hodgman had put a press statement out denying an promises or agreements.