Page 1420 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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We all have to play our part in this Territory, and that was the point of that reference to the committee which came from Mrs Grassby when she was Minister. We will have an energy report which surely will be recommending that the mileage that Canberra people travel be reduced. I do not know how Mr Duby will respond to that.
Mr Duby has endeavoured to use the report of that committee to which I referred as evidence for the closure of the Ainslie Transfer Station. He has consciously, wilfully, evaded the issue in a number of circumstances. It is true that the committee, of which Mr Stefaniak, Dr Kinloch and I were members, did not recommend that the Ainslie tip stay open. That is not an argument that we allowed it to be closed. We have not recommended in that report that we keep open the Mugga Lane tip and the Belconnen tip. Is Mr Duby going to close them? We have not raised them as an issue in our report. What a nonsense it is to say that, because we did not refer to it, it is a ground for closing it. I suppose when a no self-government candidate sits in the ministry we can expect those nonsense statements.
Mr Duby has also evaded the issue of consultation. He said he consulted within the Government. Dr Kinloch may correct me, but I have a fair memory of a recent remark by him that he did not know about it. He lives in the north part of Canberra, a stone's throw from the tip. If Mr Duby intended to consult, one would think he would have turned around to Dr Kinloch and said, "Hey, listen, this is what we're proposing". He did not consult even that far.
Mr Duby: No favouritism.
MR WOOD: Whom did he consult? He did not talk to Mr Humphries, because I know his views on recycling; they are quite sound. Mr Duby further evaded the issue when he said that the contract was not going to be renewed. Of course, no contractor would renew his contract based on something that was signed three or five years ago. How many years ago was it? Does Mr Duby know offhand? He says that it was three ago. Rates have gone up a good deal in that time. Of course the contractor is not going to renew the contract in the circumstances that you have presented to him. Do not use that as an argument here; it is quite hopeless. Once more Mr Duby evaded the question of recycling elsewhere. Mitchell came out of the blue. Nothing is planned for Mitchell at this stage. At the end of the year something might happen.
What concerns me as much as anything else about this closure is the ruthless way in which it was done. I had people sign petitions out there on Saturday, and I was fairly optimistic, especially in view of what Dr Kinloch said, that there might be some review by the Government. But on the television news last night I saw ACT workers, or contractors of some sort, on overtime on Sunday cutting down all the signs with oxyacetylene gear. They were
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