"A Most Courageous Decision Minister!!"

If you Google “most dangerous animal in the world” you will get a list of all the usual suspects --- polar bear, elephant, lion, great white shark, box jellyfish, and even the tiny mosquito! These answers are all wrong! The most dangerous animal in the world is a politician who thinks he (or she) has just had a “good idea”!  Even more dangerous if the “good idea” fulfils every politician’s need to “be seen to be doing something”! In the current furore over the climate, these dangerous animals are roaming abroad, “good ideas” expanding and exploding like thought bubbles, polluting the landscape and endangering our sanity. The latest “good idea” in Queensland is the Sustainability Declaration --- my interstate or international readers may substitute their local nonsense of choice. The Queensland Sustainability Declaration is a government form containing over 50 questions which must be completed by every homeowner in Queensland (or every interstate or overseas investor owning property in Queensland), who wishes to offer that property for sale. As management rights businesses are sold with a managers unit then these new rules apply to the Management Rights Industry as well.
 
The form is effective from 1st January 2010, and any property available for sale from that date will have to be withdrawn from sale if a Sustainability Declaration is not in place.Failure to have a signed declaration will put an owner at risk of fines of $2000 and agent $10,000 per breach from 28th February 2010.

But, “AH!” you say, this must be a good thing! The government will be able to collect all this valuable information about R-rated pink batts, pale coloured roof material, dual flush toilets and 3-star WELS taps (whatever they may be), and plan more adequately for our bright and prosperous future. Wrong again! None of this information will be collected or collated. Once the exercise is finished and your house or unit is sold, you can flush your Sustainability Declaration down your (hopefully) dual flush toilet! Real estate agents in Queensland have already been warned by their insurers that they must not complete this form on behalf of sellers. Children of elderly parents should also respectfully decline when asked to complete this form on behalf of their loved ones. Under no circumstances should a manager or a tenant complete the form on behalf of his landlord as one desperate southern owner of a Brisbane unit has just requested. The law is plain in any event that the document must be signed by the owner or a duly appointed attorney of the owner. The reason for caution is clear, because while the Government has been keen to point out that a contract could not crash because of an incorrect declaration, a buyer will still have clear rights to sue for damages if a document’s content is misleading and the Government penalties mentioned above apply for the same reasons.
 
The ultimate joke in the whole process is that in the fact sheet accompanying the Declaration it states “The intention of the form is that it is completed to the best of the seller’s ability and knowledge. Where the seller cannot reasonably find out information or has no technical knowledge about the feature then the box may be left blank.” So there you have it! If you or your granny don’t want to brave the ladder to check for batts in your belfry, or are not sure what 3-star WELS taps are, just leave it blank! For those of you who remember “Yes Minister”, why is it the Public Service in Queensland does not have a Sir Humphrey Appleby? If The Honorable Jim Hacker had raised the possibility of a Sustainability Declaration to inconvenience almost every voter in the state, Sir Humphrey would have just said, “Minister, that is the most courageous decision you have ever made!” --- and that would have put an end to it!