Page 5010 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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My suggestion, in the principle stage, was to deal with that. Of course, this issue - like many of my other concerns on this Bill - could then have been dealt with in a bipartisan fashion and we could have come back on Thursday and, perhaps, even been able to deal with the Bill as a whole. As it is, I see that I am going to have to speak to quite a large number of clauses in this Bill that present me with some concern.
Clause agreed to.
Clause 4 agreed to.
Clause 5
MR MOORE (10.31): This clause deals with the stages and parts of the plan. The great concern here, of course, is that we may get a situation where we do not get a coherent strategy for the ACT. What this section provides for, as I read it, is for a part of the plan to be presented at any stage and dealt with, instead of dealing with the plan as a whole. This would allow the Government, of course, if they decide that a particular issue is of some concern to them, to incorporate that as part of their plan, and to deal with that issue as part of their plan.
There are a number of contentious issues around and it may well suit the Government to do that. The temptation may just prove to be too great. One of those issues, of course, that I mentioned briefly was the schools that they have targeted to close. I understand that there is already a draft variation available for the school site in Cook which will allow the wiping out of the school - the whole community facility - including the hall, which could well have been a community hall. I understand that the variation will provide for up to 80 medium density townhouses.
It is an absolutely appalling attack on a neighbourhood by this Government and one, of course, that - - -
Mr Berry: Vandalism.
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Berry. Mr Berry interjects the word "vandalism". That is appropriate. That is only one of the several school sites that the Government is vandalising. We should, of course, have a curfew on this Government to stop their vandalism. If that were the case they would not be doing any more damage to Canberra.
By taking parts of the plan and dealing with them as such, of course, it is possible to change a concept and move away from the overall strategy. In Canberra we have a strategy basically tied to a decentralised plan where the work ought to be accessible to the individuals who live nearby. If we have the plan taken in parts, it could well be that we lose this sense of strategy and the sense of coherence that is critical to the plan that we are all interested in.
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