Page 333 - Week 03 - Thursday, 1 June 1989
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committee would be heard objectively and processed properly by the committee, which never got off the ground effectively anyway.
Mr Speaker, we have seen attempts at containing fraud in the Administration, which is fraud at another level by the ACT Administration. It has issued the first report of its fraud control initiatives. This all deals to a great degree with blue-collar problems in the ACT Administration, such as those concerning concrete. Some of those prosecuted have been foremen and parties involved in actual civil works in the ACT. This gloss does not overcome the prospect that large national companies are wary about coming to the ACT. I looked this morning, Mr Speaker, at a list of projects that Concrete Constructions, for example, has undertaken in Australia since 1910.
It started with the Bong Bong Creek bridge at Bong Bong, New South Wales. Some of us know that. In 1950, amongst a whole list of other things costing $875m, it built the Balgownie hostel at Balgownie, New South Wales. That is where I lived. I have no brief for Concrete Constructions per se. It bulldozed the farm on which I lived and built a migrant hostel there. I recall those days. The fact is that that company has not even managed to be on a tender list for a couple of matters in the ACT recently. I have no particular brief for Concrete Constructions.
Concrete Constructions has prepared a large inner city plan for discussion amongst community groups. The Royal Australian Institute of Architects, ACT chapter, co-hosted, with the help of the ACT Administration and a speech given by Mr Keith Lyon, a proposal for a design competition for the proper and orderly development of this city. The fact is that some local, preferred interests are attempting to proceed with the redevelopment of section 19 of this city to put a finger of development inside the perimeter of London Circuit and Vernon Circle without there being an overall city plan.
Mr Speaker, the Rally does not think that we can continue to encourage national developers to have an interest in this city when we have, as John Haslem says, Canberra Incorporated and some people who are a little too friendly. It is pretty hard to do business when one does not live in a town. We all know about small town deals and the rest. I have been in this town long enough and involved with business long enough to know how business works the world over. The vast majority of business people are honest. They really work towards the community interest, and it will be those people, properly represented on an independent commission, who will be probably more effective than any of us in ensuring that proper business practices arise in both the private and the public sectors.
This city has grown a little larger than, say, Tamworth. The fact is that some people in this city have had a preferred run. That is the view of the Rally, looking
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