Page 401 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 1990
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I think that we have had a very regrettable indication this morning of the Government's approach to open government and consultation with the community on sensitive issues. This is another sensitive issue, Mr Kaine, an issue on which I think it is appropriate that the community be consulted. You apparently do not believe so.
Mr Kaine: There is a community consultative group in existence. Don't you remember? You established it, and it continues in place.
MS FOLLETT: I do not think that we can build community support by promising government handouts to the project. I think that we can build community support - - -
Mr Jensen: Another misrepresentation.
MS FOLLETT: Government members are interjecting on each other. We are getting some rather good schoolboy antics across the road there! I will it say again - the support by the community should not be generated by government handouts to the project; it should be generated in the full public knowledge of the benefits and the risks of the project. I think that support can be achieved by demonstrating that the proposal can stand on its own two feet, that it will be developed without breaching Canberra's longstanding and well understood land tenure system, and that it will not destroy the environmental or the social fabric of our community. I think it is time that the Government made its position clear on those matters.
Most importantly, however, I believe that there should be a coordinated national approach to the assessment of the very fast train. It is very important that States should not be forced into situations of conflict or bidding against each other over this project. It is a project of national significance and it should be treated that way.
We heard Mr Greiner saying on the radio this morning that he believed that the current debate over road transport is a national issue because it involves several States, and he was calling for a national approach on that issue. The very fast train is no less a national issue. It is a project of national significance and I think it is time that we treated it in that way. I would like to call on the ACT Government to act responsibly in this matter and to make its view known to the Federal Government - a view which calls for the institution of a full and independent inquiry into the very fast train, where all the issues are aired in a way that gives them the national prominence they deserve.
The community throughout Australia clearly has an interest in this issue. We have had some limited meetings and public announcements on the issues so far but it is a national project, a project of no less significance than, say, the Snowy Mountains scheme, where its impact will be
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