Page 2148 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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inference then is that each member of the Government must stand one at a time to defend his or her position. I would ask you to withdraw that imputation.
MR BERRY: I withdraw that. (Extension of time granted)
Mr Speaker, I go back to the motion that was moved by the occupants of the Griffin Centre. This demonstrates where the Government has fallen down in relation to the adequacy of their response to the users' needs. The meeting that I referred to earlier demanded that the Griffin Centre be retained on the current site. Their concerns in relation to that matter were that they would be moved into a new building and then they would be frozen out because of high rents and high charges. There was no guarantee in the Chief Minister's statement yesterday that that will not occur. In fact, it ensured that the occupants of the Griffin Centre and the users of the Griffin Centre would remain powerless in the determination of the future of that site.
I heard an interjection a little while ago. Whilst it is not my practice to worry about them too much, there was some talk about Labor's position in relation to the Griffin Centre. I can say to you, Mr Speaker, and to the members opposite, that Labor was snowy-white on this issue; it was spot-on, because the future of the Griffin Centre was never in doubt. It had a long future.
Mr Collaery: You ask them that.
Mr Moore: He did, at a public meeting.
MR BERRY: I did. I told them and they believed me.
Mr Collaery: When you were in government?
MR BERRY: When we were in government the future of the Griffin Centre was secure.
Mr Jensen: You offered them a lease, did you?
MR BERRY: I did not have to. They did not worry about a lease with the Labor Government because their security was not threatened as it is by the development party. They sought that a lease of 25 years be issued to ensure tenure and to give them some power in negotiations about what their future might be. What has this Government done? All it has done is extend a licence - for heaven's sake, a licence - over which I am sure it will have total control. There will not be any power to the people out at the Griffin Centre.
What they wanted to do was to ensure that their tenure was guaranteed in respect of current and future community uses at the centre. They wanted security for that tenure. They wanted proper maintenance of the building, and rent, rates and all charges maintained at minimal levels. They wanted
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