Page 259 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
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on. Fourthly, the organisers of Summer Nats must be responsible for cleaning up the litter which it produces, and that was a very severe problem in the most recent staging of the event. I do not think it is acceptable that the whole of Canberra should pay through the public purse for the cleaning up of that event.
Finally, I believe that there should be a sufficient police presence to ensure that all existing laws in relation to public behaviour are enforced. Private and public property must be protected. The individual residents should not be harassed either physically or verbally as happened on occasions, as I say, by those few bad apples.
Mr Speaker, I believe that if the Government were to act on that five-point action plan, then the Summer Nats would be able to continue at Natex and, more importantly, that the residents of Canberra, and North Canberra in particular, would be able to continue their lives without the unwarranted and unnecessary disruptions that occurred. So my intention in putting forward the plan is quite simply to ensure that everybody can enjoy Summer Nats, including those residents who are closest to the event.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (5.35): Mr Speaker, it was interesting to have this matter raised in this way today, which I suppose is an appropriate way to raise the issue, and I am glad that the Leader of the Opposition has done just that. The Summer Nats has generated a lot of publicity this particular year. The street machine nationals, the Summer Nats, as we all say, is enormously beneficial to Canberra's tourism industry, and it is quickly becoming one of the city's biggest annual tourist events, with the level of income generated by the visiting folk who come to town, to both the Natex, the National Exhibition Centre Trust, and the local business community in that area - indeed, not just there, but right throughout the ACT.
There have been a lot of problems raised in relation to the Summer Nats, and most of which seem to stem from one of the highlights, which is the super cruise, the parade of street machines from Natex to the city, held on the Saturday night of the event. Thousands of people, many of them family groups, line Northbourne Avenue to view and enjoy this particular parade and spectacle.
I agree with the Leader of the Opposition that it is most unfortunate that the actions of the minority group - the majority of whom, I believe, are local Canberrans - overshadow the pleasure and benefit gained by thousands of visitors and residents on the north side during this event.
Ms Follett raised the point of an action plan, and I am pleased to be able to advise Ms Follett that we are actually one step ahead of her. A series of discussions have already been held between my department, and the National Exhibition Centre, the Australian Federal Police,
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