Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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CULLEN BAY MARINA AMENDMENT BILL 2001


Madam Speaker, I move that the bills be now read a second time.

These bills deal with the by-law making powers given to the Cullen Bay Marina Management Corporation established under the Cullen Bay Marina Act and to estate and building corporations currently established, or which may in the future be established, under the Unit Titles Act. These amendments apply to the Unit Titles Act as amended by the Unit Titles Amendment Act (No 1) 2001. That amendment act is expected to commence operation in early 2002.

Under the present laws such corporations have broad powers to make by-laws concerning the management and use of common property and the control of such matters as vehicles, vessels, wharves and berths, pollution, noise and nuisance control, and the general duties of the owners and occupiers of the land.

However, it appears that the by-laws must relate to the common property of the corporation. Such property is the land or water in the development that is owned collectively by the owners of the individual lots within the development. All of those by-law making powers exist so as to facilitate communal living however it may also be necessary that the by-law making power extend to those parts of the land development that are privately owned rather than collectively owned. For example, it is often the case that parts of the marina in a foreshore development are owned by the corporation while others are owned by the individual land owners. In such cases it is not possible for the corporation to control the use of the waters ways unless it has control of both the common property and the privately-owned land. The same point can be made in respect to noise control, general pollution controls and the controls necessary for communal health and safety.

At the present time, a limited number of by-laws have been made. The main ones relate to the developments at Cullen Bay and Tipperary Waters. In both cases the by-laws have provisions in them that only work if the by-law making power applies to the whole of the land and water in the development, for example, the various by-laws that control living in boats anchored in the marina.

The proposal for the need to amend the legislation was made by the Cullen Bay Marina Management Corporation to the previous government. The contentious issue was the validity or not of by-laws controlling the extent to which boats anchored in the privately-owned parts of the marina could be inhabited on a permanent basis. I understand that my predecessor provided in-principle support to the corporation’s suggestion that the legislation be amended.

In determining this government’s approach to the issue we have balanced the interests of individual lot owners against the interests of the local communities living in these developments. We are confident that all of the initial purchases of land in Cullen Bay and Tipperary Waters would have made their purchasing decisions on the assumption that the by-laws validly applied to the whole of the waterways in the developments. Accordingly, we have decided that it is appropriate for this legislation both to validate the current by-laws and to permit new bylaws to be made in respect to the whole of the development.

It must be noted that this validation of the by-laws will only apply from the time of commencement of the new act. It will not affect the legality or otherwise of matters purportedly regulated by the by-laws in their current form. The Cullen Bay Marina Amendment Bill 2001 also provides for the review of penalties for breaches of the act, and for those penalties as reviewed to be expressed in terms of penalty units as permitted by the Penalties Act. The penalties have been substantially increased. These increases reflect the view that penalties should be structured so as to provide a meaningful range of penalties that may be imposed by the courts.

Madam Speaker, I commend the bills to honourable members.

Debate adjourned.


 

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