OUTBACK COMMUNITIES (ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT) BILL

Final Stages

The House of Assembly agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the House of Assembly desires the concurrence of the Legislative Council:

No. 1. Clause 9, page 6, line 3—Delete 'Public Sector Management Act 1995' and substitute:

Public Sector (Honesty and Accountability) Act 1995

No. 2 Clause 11, page 7, line 6—Delete 'Public Sector Management Act 1995' and substitute:

Public Sector (Honesty and Accountability) Act 1995

No. 3 Clause 21, page 12—Delete clause 21 and substitute:

21—Rates on land—asset sustainability levies and community contributions

(1) The Authority may impose—

(a) asset sustainability levies on land in the outback to raise revenue for the maintenance of public services and facilities in the outback; and

(b) community contributions on land in an area of the outback to raise revenue for the purposes of planning, carrying out, making available, supporting, maintaining or improving an activity that is, or is intended to be, of particular benefit to the outback community in that area or to visitors to that community.

(2) An asset sustainability levy is to be imposed in the same way as a council imposes general rates on land in its council area, except that the levy must be based on a fixed charge approved by the Minister.

(3) A community contribution is to be imposed in the same way as a council imposes separate rates on land in its council area, except that—

(a) a contribution may only be imposed if it is authorised by a community affairs resourcing and management agreement; and

(b) a contribution must be based on a fixed charge approved by the Minister.

(4) The fixed charge approved by the Minister for an asset sustainability levy or community contribution may vary according to the use of the land, the locality of the land or any other factor (but not one based on a valuation of the land).

(4a) The Minister must not approve a fixed charge for an asset sustainability levy for a financial year that will result in an increase in the levy from the previous financial year (other than a CPI increase) unless—

(a) a notice of the proposed fixed charge has been laid before both Houses of Parliament, together with an explanation of the reasons for the increase; and

(b) after 6 sitting days (which need not fall within the same Parliament or the same session of Parliament) no resolution has been passed by either House of Parliament prohibiting the approval.

(5) For the purposes of this section, Chapter 10 Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1999 applies as if it formed part of this Part, subject to the following modifications:

(a) a reference to a council is to be read as a reference to the Authority;

(b) a reference to the area of a council is to be read as a reference to the outback;

(c) a reference to local government purposes is to be read as a reference to the purposes of the Authority;

(d) a reference to a general rate is to be read as a reference to an asset sustainability levy;

(e) a reference to a separate rate is to be read as a reference to a community contribution;

(f) a reference to the chief executive of a council is to be read as a reference to the presiding member of the Authority;

(g) any other modifications prescribed by regulation.

(6) The revenue raised from asset sustainability levies and community contributions in respect of a particular financial year need not be completely expended in that year.

(7) The first asset sustainability levy notice for a financial year must be accompanied by—

(a) a summary of the Authority's business plan for the financial year; and

(b) an assessment of the activities of the Authority against its business plan for the previous financial year.

(8) Asset sustainability levies and community contributions cannot be challenged on a ground based on non-compliance with this section, or on a ground based on the contents of a plan, budget or assessment prepared under this Act.

(9) In this section—

CPI increase means an increase reflecting the all groups consumer price index for Adelaide published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I move:

That the House of Assembly's amendments be agreed to.

I understand that we are agreeing to an amendment that was moved and agreed to in the other house concerning the levy provision and processes around that. I also understand that the bill returns with an amendment to clause 21 dealing with the provisions which apply to the asset sustainability levy. The levy is based on the idea of a shared community responsibility to contribute to the maintenance of existing public use facilities and infrastructure in the Outback and includes those assets which are believed to be of benefit to the whole of the Outback such as airstrips, toilets and UHF repeater network infrastructure.

Following the rigorous process undertaken by the new authority in the first instance to construct a levy, the levy amount will not be able to be increased by more than CPI without scrutiny of both houses of parliament. Each house may disallow the levy within six sitting days. The amendment to which the government has agreed in the other place adds to the many safeguards around this levy. The amendment, which I do not believe is necessary, is a concession by the government to ensure that the valuable changes made by this bill can be implemented. I am pleased to be able to commend this amendment agreed to in the other place to this committee.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Without wanting to take the minister's account of facts as accurate—I do not think the opposition supported it in the other place—we are not going to disagree with it tonight, but I take the opportunity to indicate that the opposition welcomes the fact that the government, through this amendment, is going to accept that these charges will be disallowable by either house of parliament having laid the matter on the table. We believe that that is a significant improvement in the legislation but we reiterate our fundamental objection to a situation where we have a form of local government in the northern areas of the state where people are not being allowed to have full local representation. As the Hon. Mr Gunn said in the other place:

...the Liberal Party will change this in government; make no mistake about it, and we will make sure that communities in the Outback will have the ability to elect who they want and not have who the government wants them to have.

I can assure you that the Hon. Graham Gunn has been a strong presence in the Liberal Party party room for many years, and I am sure that his ghost will make sure that we honour that commitment. We have every intention of making sure that the Outback communities have the level of representation of any other South Australians. Nonetheless, until we are able to form government, we will support this motion.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Also implicit in agreeing to this amendment is the money clause that was inserted in the other place. That was discussed here formally but it went to the other place because it was not able to be introduced here. That money clause has also come back to this chamber, so I just need to make sure that everyone is clear that, in agreeing to these amendments, we are also agreeing to that money clause, which goes to the levies.

Motion carried.