Page 260 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
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and the event organisers, to map out a variety of strategies needed to avoid a recurrence of the disturbances that have occurred in 1989. I assure Ms Follett, the residents of northern Canberra in particular, and indeed the residents of Canberra as a whole, that these very points that she has suggested - namely, enforcement of the road laws, fixing up of the camping problems, correction of the noise pollution, clean up of litter by the event organisers, and an increased police presence - have all been addressed and are in train for the running of this 1990-91 event.
I am pleased that Ms Follett has raised this matter, but the matter is being addressed. If she has any further suggestions as to ways that the safety and enjoyment of this spectacular event within the Canberra year can be improved upon, I will look forward to hearing from her. But the matters that she has suggested are already in train.
MR MOORE (5.39): I, too, have been approached by many people on this particular issue, and my assurance and my statement to those people has been that I believe that appropriate action needs to be taken to attempt to bring the Summer Nats into an event that is acceptable to the people of north Canberra, as well as to the participants. If that is not the case by next year, I would be prepared to move a motion to exclude it from Canberra, if we have to find a way to be able to do that.
I would like to add a few other possibilities of some of the facilities we have potentially around Canberra. It is possible that what was previously the police driver training area at Sutton Road may well provide an area where people who wish to run drag racing may do so. It is a perfectly appropriate place for that, it gets it out of the suburbs and the drag strips. So there are facilities for the sort of games that people want to play with their street machines.
There is another factor that I must admit I am very curious about, and I foreshadowed that this could come up at question time. I refer to the use of move-on powers over the period of the Summer Nats. The police certainly had those powers at their disposal. As much as I object to them, it strikes me that if they did have those powers at their disposal it was an excellent time to use them in terms of people who were camped at inappropriate places and so on. Those powers may well have been used and I will be interested to find out if that is the case, how they were used, and how successful they were as far as the police officers were concerned.
DR KINLOCH (5.41): Mr Speaker, we are all eager participants in the many events of our city and, having looked at the cars in the basement, I think there is a small blue Volkswagen that could be used for us to participate in the event next year.
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