Page 2166 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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Mr Speaker, there is an accepted practice of governments in the ACT to provide low-cost community centres. They are not centres for making money by rental schemes. Witness how the centres work in Belconnen, Woden, Tuggeranong and other places. We have heard the most extraordinary suggestion from two members opposite that somehow there was a secret rent-landlord scheme lurking around. Again, Mr Speaker, it is paranoia.
Mr Speaker, they might be on a little bit of a roll because their propaganda has served them well in recent weeks, but I believe that we have a very informed, intelligent community in Canberra and it will only be a few more months before they see through it. Certainly Mrs Grassby is relatively quiet now. She really got burnt on the Northbourne paranoia.
Mrs Grassby: You are joking. You are the one that got burnt. You could not sell them.
MR COLLAERY: Quite frankly, Mr Speaker, all of these outrageous comments will boomerang. They are to the benefit of the Government because the goods are being delivered.
The new community precinct will have a community walkway; there will be a focus for community footpath activities, a thing that has been reflected in meetings at Gorman House and around the ROCKS area on weekends. Let us have a permanent community focus in that area that is landscaped and treed with some green space in and around a community centre where we can have outdoor activities and those excellent functions that other major metropolitan cities now offer to their residents.
There was not a word of applause from Mr Moore - just sour grapes. He could not even contemplate how much work is involved in giving effect to some of these community based aims. He will never be in government so he could never understand the complexities of government and the need to give effect to the wishes of all Canberra people.
As for his comments about the Canberra Times site, I will be reserving my comments for another occasion, but let me say in the minute left to me after all the interruptions that here is an approval that follows the requirements set by a select committee. It follows a comprehensive set of environmental and other assessments such as infrastructure assessments, and it follows what governments do to their sincere best. It follows a seven-month delay. There has been no indecent haste or rush about it. I clearly remember sitting in the Rally offices with my colleagues, when Mr Moore was one of us, when he said to Concrete Constructions, "Well, if it's only for commercial tenancy then I don't object, but you're not allowing public servants in there". I cannot see how Mr Moore can now go on with his holier-than-thou approach when he said that in front of the three of us.
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