Page 4450 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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with the construction jobs in hand, she will be able to nullify the negative votes coming from that. I am not quite sure what the motive of the Labor Government is.
But let me go back a point in time. Let me go back to 4 March 1989 and the leader and editorial on election day by the Canberra Times. Up until a day before the election the Canberra Times did not overtly support the Residents Rally. We did not get the same space for our candidates and, generally speaking, we were perceived to have some narrow issue complaints relating to Reid, to Rocky Knoll, to the casino, to Lyneham, to Turner and to a number of issues in Tuggeranong.
Mr Berry: Well, nothing has changed.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Berry interjects, "Nothing has changed". What did change was that the next afternoon Mr Clyde Holding approved a number of developments - on the eve of self-government. So, the leader the next morning, the most persuasive leader, telling people how to vote, said that if anything justified self-government it was the decisions taken on the eve of self-government and, secondly, the non-consultative, peremptory manner in which they had been made when we did not have adequate appeal rights. Nothing has changed. This is exactly the same process again on the eve of another election. So, woe betide the Labor Party and those that go along with the Labor Party. I will say thank you very much, as Leader of the Rally - if I still am.
But what is going to happen in the interim till we can deal with you and your cohorts and your lobbyists on election day? What are we going to do in the interim? How are we going to save that bit of priceless Forrest heritage, and what are we going to do about those people? I know that, in your caucus room, you all call them silvertails. It did not help us on Rocky Knoll either to be called upper Narrabundah people. The fact is that you will reap your rewards, but you will still destroy the environment in Forrest like you destroyed Rocky Knoll.
I have never spoken about Rocky Knoll in this chamber. This is the first time I have ever addressed the issue here. I am indebted to my colleague Bill Wood, who did in fact raise it, quite properly, in a report on the ageing, if I recall correctly. He questioned the genuineness of aged persons housing. I am indebted to Bill Wood for doing that. But the record shows that I have not addressed the Assembly about Rocky Knoll. I intended to remain quiet about Rocky Knoll during this Assembly, because it is a matter in which I had a personal interest.
I fear that, unless what will happen at Forrest as a result of the proposed development is clearly pointed out, the development will go ahead. There will be a huge elevated car park metres above the ground; trees will die; there will be noise; there will be more club-goers; times will change. There will probably be some form of convention
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