The Federal Opposition will announce shortly before the election the removal of all impediments to ACT land-holders getting freehold land to replace leasehold.
Informed sources close to the Liberal Party said the announcement would be made close to the election in order to boost the chances of Liberal Brendan Smyth retaining the seat of Canberra which he won in the by-election in March when Ros Kelly resigned.
Just before the 1970 Canberra by-election Prime Minister John Gorton abolished the annual land rent that went with leasehold for all Canberra residential leases. It was a popular move, but Labor won the by-election.
At present two Federal laws prevent either the Commonwealth or the ACT Governments from granting freehold in the ACT. The detail of the Opposition’s policy on the ACT is for the repeal of these laws. It would then enable the ACT Government to move for freehold land in the ACT. That would require legislation to be approved by the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Mr Smyth said yesterday, “”I cannot tell you the detail of the policy. As you know we will not be releasing detail of policies until closer to the election.”
The move is likely to be superficially popular because people who now have 99-year leases … some with as little as 30 years to run … would get freehold land without paying anything. The precedent was set in the Northern Territory which shortly after self-government converted all 99-year leases to freehold without charging land-holders.
However, the move is likely to upset proponents of orderly planning and those who like to see the capture of increased land values for the public purse through the use of betterment levies when individual lessees want to change the use to which they put their land.
It is likely to be welcomed by the business community which says that leasehold is holding back international and out-of-town investors who when given the choice of investing in eastern Australia plump for freehold in other capitals. They argue, why should Canberra be different from the rest of Australia.
Under freehold land use is determined by zoning. If land is rezoned the increase in value goes to the land-holder.
The head of the Save Our City Coalition, Jacqui Rees, said, “”Converting to freehold will not give people any more certainty than the have now.”
Freehold would enable developers to escape the controls of a properly administered leasehold system and rip off the community’s asset in increasing land values that came with changed uses.
For some it has been thought the Constitution would prevent freehold in the ACT because Section 125 says the Federal territory “”shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth.”
However, a recent opinion by Emeritus Professor of Law at ANU, Professor Leslie Zines, has said that is not an impediment. The word “”territory” in that context did not mean land-holding but a political entity, he opined. He cited the constitutional debates which indicated moves to specifically require leasehold only were defeated.
The Federal Opposition spokesman on ACT matters, Rod Kemp, said he was interested in the opinion, but would not be drawn on details of Opposition policy.
Mr Smyth said the Federal policy on the ACT had been going through its final stages over the past few days. All he could say was that existing policy called for perpetual leasehold in the ACT.
The ACT Attorney-General, Gary Humphries, said his department had provided an opinion not quite as strong as Professor Zines’s, but none the less saying a constitutional argument against freehold was unlikely to succeed.
Mr Humphries said he did not want to comment in detail until the Stein inquiry into leasehold had been completed.
“”That would be the trigger to act,” he said. “”The vibes I’m getting are that the inquiry will call for greater security of tenure.” That would assist in any recommendation that we put to the Assembly.
The Liberal Party does not have a majority in the Assembly. It would need the support of Labor because the Greens and Michael Moore’s are implacably in favour of leasehold.
Mr Humphries said he understood a major Japanese investment had fallen through at the last minute because the land was leasehold.
Some sources suggested that the Federal Liberal Party and the ACT could have worked together to announce a conversion of all ACT land to freehold just before the election.
Ms Rees said, “”If John Howard, at the behest of Canberra Inc and its scaremongering proceeds with this he will expose himself as no better than leaders of the ilk of Brian Burke who was so besotted with WA Inc. And Canberra, far from having their own property interests enhanced will find themselves paying for it for a generation.”