JjjUS; ALIAy
PRIME MINISTER PRESS STATEMENT NO. 296
6 August 1974
LAND TENURE
Cabinet this week supported a recommendation in the first
report of the Commission of Inquiry into Land Tenures uing that
any future capital profits arising from a change of land use
be retained by public authorities rather than by individuals.
The recommendation endorsed by Cabinet was made in the
report of the Commission under Mr. Justice Else-Mitchell tabled
in Parliament on 4 December last year.
The Prime Minister, Mr. Whitlam, said the Australian
Government shared the Commission ' s concern at the economic
and social consequences of the fact that capital profits
being made by individuals on changed land use were reflected
in the price of service land coming on to the market for the
first time.
Cabinet decided to urge the States to consider co-operation
with the Government's new approach on the question of changed
land use.
Mr. Whitlam said Cabinet also expressed regret that the
States so far had been unwilling to help the Commission in
its deliberations. The Australian Government considered there was no warrant
for substantial private profit-taking as a result of unearned
increases in land values occurring through community decisions.
Mr. Whitlam said that the new measures reflected initiatives
taken by the Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Mr.
Tom Uren, to reduce land speculation.
Mr. Whitlam said the Government would continue to study
the feasibility of the system of reservation of development
rights which the Commission in its first report had proposed.
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The Government would discuss the results of its study
with State Governments which would have to pass complementary
legislation if such a scheme were to be introduced.
Considering the Commission's report, Cabinet also agreed
with the recommendation that land for private urban business
use in growth areas and in Government territories should be
available only on some form of leasehold.
The Australian Government and the Governments of New
South Wales and Victoria had already agreed with this principle
in the growth area of Albury/ Wodonga.
Mr. Whitlam said the Australian Government would press
for the implementation of this principle in growth centres
and in all areas acquired under the Land Commission's program.
Cabinet decided that while statutory corporations were
an appropriate body for major urban development and redevelopment
projects, it did not accept the need for corporations to have
a continuing role in the case of existing stabilised urban areas.
CANBERRA, A, C. T.