Page 2447 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 1991
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just in the bottom line; we think government should take a lead; we think government should give moral leadership on an issue like this". What is the response from the Opposition? "There are a few dollars to be made; we should be in it."
I said last week - and I admit that it was a rhetorical statement, but true nonetheless - that obviously there would be a lot of dollars to be made in supplying chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. We have a rather large and efficient plant out at Mitchell that does all sorts of complicated things with chemicals, destroying them. Perhaps we should turn that around and take that toxic chemical sludge, containerise it and send it off to the Middle East to whoever wants to buy it to turn it into weapons. Of course, nobody would say that we should do that. But that is the logical consequence of this argument that it is all about the bottom line, it is all about the dollar, and that morality has no part to play.
We say, on the government side of this house, that there are issues on which a government must take a moral stand. There are issues on which a government is justified in saying, "It is not the dollar that we are looking at; we believe that this is right and this is where we stand". And that is the view of the Labor Party on this issue.
I would like to correct some misconceptions on the economics of this issue. It was widely reported in a story in the Canberra Times that we were somehow forgoing $10m by deciding to ban future Aidexes. Stuff and nonsense, Mr Speaker! That is a purely fanciful figure, plucked from midair. Interestingly, one of the exhibitions which were being spoken about as being cancelled, Energex '92, is controlled by the same company that controls Aidex. There was a threat that that would be cancelled if we cancelled Aidex. I said at that time that I thought that was bluff. It is an understandable confrontation between a government and a promoter.
There has been no cancellation of Energex '92. It is still booked in and I confidently expect that it will continue, because the Canberra convention and tourism industry is very competitive internationally. We have an excellent level of facilities for international and national tourists. We have excellent infrastructure. We have two competing venues, each outstanding in its own right: Natex owned by the government, and the National Convention Centre in the private sector. We are the centre of national government. We are conveniently located midway between Melbourne and Sydney. People come to this city for national and international conventions because we offer outstanding competitive advantages. It is a commercial decision to locate in this city and people will continue to make that commercial decision.
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