South Road Upgrade

860 Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15 October 2021). With regards to the South Road upgrade works and land acquisition up-front payment:

(a) Can people who are having their homes acquired, spend the $10,000 upfront cash payment on 'whatever they want'?

(b) If not, why are they being told this by DIT officials in one-on-one meetings?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing): I have been advised:

Section 26B of the Land Acquisition Act 1969 states the authority may pay an owner of land (owner of the fee simple in the land in relation to which a notice of intention to acquire is given) an amount not exceeding $10,000 towards payment of legal and valuation costs.

If an owner has been paid the $10,000 towards professional fees and the professional fees exceed $10,000, then all fees being claimed will need to be appropriately assessed in line with the government's policy that they must be reasonable costs that arise naturally, reasonably and directly from the acquisition and are incurred in seeking professional advice on a person's entitlement to compensation (with legal costs reimbursed will be in accordance with the Higher Courts Costs Scale, previously the Supreme Court Scale) as this position is consistent with the scheme and case law and valuation fees must be at the prevailing market rate, all as stipulated in the Legal and Valuation Fact Sheet.

There may be situations whereby an owner does not spend the entirety of the $10,000 on legal and valuation fees. In this scenario it is usually not in the authority's interest to initiate recovery action for any unspent funds that the party having their property acquired may have been able to save on professional fees.