Page 627 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
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MR COLLAERY: I will do that. Mr Speaker, I note that the Opposition does not wish to hear our response on social - - -
Ms Follett: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I think he is calling into question your ruling on the relevance.
Mrs Grassby: When we are talking about social justice we will hear him. We are not, at the moment.
MR SPEAKER: Do not debate the issue. Please get to the point, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I will round off the debate by indicating that we have got the Opposition rattled. They have no grasp of the facts in these issues. They are at the moment in a dangerous state of playing with the press gallery. Their situation means that they will lose credibility shortly when they sell and dump so many pup ideas on the media. They will be shown up as we consistently show them up to the public.
When Mr Kaine spoke on 27 February in this house, he said - - -
Mr Kaine: No, not this house. At a luncheon.
MR COLLAERY: At the luncheon that was referred to earlier he said the consultants acknowledged, as did the Government in its response to the joint venture's concept report, that the issue of who bears infrastructure costs is a matter for negotiation. He said that it is not true that in giving some detail of what those costs might be we are, as a Government, in any way committed to burying them. I think that conclusively puts down that red herring and again discredits this supposed Opposition.
MR STEVENSON (12.22): Many Canberrans and other Australians have grave concerns about the very fast train project.
Mr Duby: I thought he was going to talk about the MFP.
MR STEVENSON: I heard Mr Duby mention something about the multifunction polis. Many people have brought it up because the MFP and VFT are inextricably linked. This was well stated in 1987 as the early Japanese proposal on MFPs indicated that they would need to be serviced by fast trains. Sir Peter Abeles has stated that without associated developments, the VFT cannot be financially feasible. The associated developments are reasonably easy enough to work out. They are the multifunction polis or, if you like, cities of between 100,000 and a quarter of a million people containing mainly, as has been acknowledged, people from overseas.
There is no doubt that many Canberran people that we have spoken to and surveyed are concerned about foreign
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