Page 1589 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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MRS GRASSBY (5.30): Mr Speaker, I also take the opportunity to dissent from this report. I have taken note of the planning legislation, and an area of particular concern to me and to my party is the treatment of Aboriginal sites and artefacts. I have been in contact with the Aboriginal community, and the view shared by members of the Institute of Aboriginal Studies and the community, the ACT Heritage Committee and the Archaeology Society is that their input to the committees has been ignored completely.
The Aboriginal community is one of the most important communities of the Australian community, as it was our founding nation. Yet, when we are presented with the opportunity to do something meaningful and important to protect Aboriginal sites and heritages, we do not do it. We absolutely ignore the people who have something to say about this. Archaeological history in Canberra should be important to this house and also to the people. I think we should go out of our way to do something for them, rather than ignore them, which this report has done. Not only has it ignored them, but John Mant, who wrote the very first report that this report has been based on, was not even called to give any evidence to the committees. He was absolutely ignored. But then, that is typical of this Government.
This report was rushed through. You have to look after the big boys, your big friends with the money, and get things rushed through. As I said, the Residents Rally's policy gets changed every day to suit whatever is going. Mr Speaker, the so-called consultation process of the Liberal Alliance Government is really an absolute joke.
As a member of the Conservation, Heritage and Environment Committee, I dissent from the findings of these committees on the planning legislation, along with the other members of my party. I am sorry that the Chief Minister is not here. I understand that he has left. So he will not have heard any of this. I suppose that he can always read it in Hansard. I would have thought that, as he is the Minister for planning, he would have been here. I am just doing a quick count. Maybe we could do something and there might not be enough members present for the vote, because I am not sure Mr Duby is still in the house either. He has probably left too.
Mr Collaery: Oh, these dreams. Dreams are made of this.
MRS GRASSBY: That is what you think. I do not know. We did it once before, remember, and you ran around like mad trying to find people.
Mr Collaery: Yes, and we know why that happened, don't we, Mr Berry?
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