A Canberra family will not a get a rural lease returned to them after it was unnecessarily resumed despite an admitted bureaucratic bungle by the Commonwealth department before self-government.
Dr Leo Shanahan and his wife Joan got the 325-hectare block on the western side of the Murrumbidgee in the early 1970s but it was resumed in 1975 for housing.
Later the Commonwealth decided Canberra would not expand west of the Murrumbidgee so the block was no longer needed.
It was later used for agistment, but never offered back to the Shanahans, as was the practice and formal policy from 1987-93.
The Shanahans lodged a request to get the lease back with the Commonwealth department but nothing came of it.
Earlier this year a family member saw a small sign on the gate to the block saying an application had been made to amalgamate it with an adjoining block.
The Shanahans objected to the present Department of Land, Environment and Planning, saying that either they should get the block back or it should go to competitive public tender.
However, last year the Government changed its policy on rural leases. Lessees of resumed leases would not be offered them back if the holdings were too small. The policy was aimed at making viable farming units.
Late last month the Minister approved the amalgamation with the neighbour on payment of valuation.
The department acknowledges that the Shanahans had sought to get the block back, but said there was no formal record of it. It acknowledged a “”bureaucratic bungle” in the Commonwealth department not offering them the block and that the Shanahans would have been entitled to first refusal under the old policy.
However, it said the new policy “”supersedes all previous arrangements”.
Mrs Shanahan said the government had failed to live up to its rural policy guidelines because they say amalgamations could go ahead “”provided the department is satisfied issues of equity have been satisfied”.
She accused the department of favouritism because the new lessee had worked with the National Capital Planning Authority.
She said the government had treated her unfairly because she had had no right of appeal. The fair thing would have been to put the block up for public tender.
The Minister, Bill Wood, said that the new lessee had complied with the requirements of the Territory Plan.