Page 1789 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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Wednesday, 1 May 1991
_____________________
MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
SCHOOL SITES - TERRITORY PLAN
Debate resumed from 17 April 1991, on motion by Mr Moore:
That:
(1) the advertisement in the Canberra Times on Friday, 12 April 1991 calling for comments on the Draft Variation to the Territory Plan for several school sites be rerun with the following corrections, namely that it (a) be written in plain English; (b) be unambiguous; (c) remove any wording which might suggest, by its very complexity, that objections from members of the public might not be well-received; and (d) be written in a tone that is friendly and encourages community submissions; and
(2) a further period be made available to allow preparation of submissions.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (10.31): I was in the middle of remarks on the last occasion when time expired; I will continue those remarks now. Mr Speaker, Mr Moore had moved his motion, and I think Mr Kaine and Mr Wood had also spoken to it at the time. I rose to indicate that I agreed with Mr Moore's comment that the Assembly should be a consultative forum and I was happy for that to happen. I was beginning to say that I felt that there was some suspicion aroused in this matter; that there was more than just an argument about making the Assembly a consultative place and generating debate on issues of this kind in this place behind the motion that Mr Moore had moved. I said that then, and I say now that my concern is based, quite naturally, on the very clear expression of Mr Moore's intent in raising this issue.
Mr Moore has made no bones or secret at all about the fact that he would like to delay as long as possible and as effectively as possible the onset of any change to those school sites. So, Mr Speaker, I think we have to look at this debate and this motion of Mr Moore's clearly in that light. We are not talking just about what planning processes are gone through and what the planning legislation says about the way in which we effect changes. This debate is as much about school closures as anything else.
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