Page 5070 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 12 December 1990
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The organisers point out in their magazine - and I am pleased to note that they do - that there is to be no camping along Northbourne Avenue. I would wish they gave it higher priority. I have noticed a TV advertisement where the same message flashes at the bottom of the screen. They have not really promoted it. The official program does not make any mention of it and it receives a paragraph in the whole of one magazine. So, it is not really heavily promoted. I would have preferred one or two full page advertisements advising these people what they can and cannot do when in Canberra. I would have hoped that the organisers could have pushed this matter rather harder than they have done. Let us acknowledge what they have done.
Let me point to the problem that may emerge this year. Ms Follett, you may not be happy to know that you are going to be blasted by sound. This year the organisers are talking about Australia's first major street machine "sound-off". It is the big new thing this year. That sound-off is a competition to see who has the loudest sound system in their car and who can make the most decibels. That is something for the residents of north Canberra to look forward to.
As these cars, 150 in number - that is the limit - drive down Northbourne Avenue in their major parade, they aim to turn to a specific radio station that is set up for the occasion. I forget what it is called, Radionats or something of that nature. The 150 cars will turn to that radio station and they will turn their sound machines to maximum volume. I wonder, Mr Duby and Mr Collaery, whether that is going to be part of your supervision. It is going to make some sort of sound.
Mr Duby: Boys will be boys.
MR WOOD: Boys will be boys. Well, I do not know. Do we have to go through the experience first and adjust next year? This is some sort of preview of what will be happening this year. Let us not forget that these people spend a lot of money and time on their cars and they derive their major pleasure from simply driving around. The major problem last year, I suppose, after the camping in Northbourne Avenue, was that they drove through nearby suburbs simply to make the noise that they designed their cars to make.
I do not know how widespread the policing will be to give some protection to neighbouring suburbs. I expect that people in Canberra will give some tolerance to these machines. I would. If they come past my place, I would be quite interested to see them. But there is a limit, and I wonder whether Mr Collaery can tell us how that limit will be policed. When will someone make approaches to the organisers and to the drivers and say, "Okay, that is enough; out you go; get back into Natex and go to bed for the night"? What can you do? I think people's tolerance can go only so far.
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