Page 4521 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
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My interest, then, is as a member of this Assembly representing the people not only of Forrest but of the entire ACT, the entire community, as we all do. To follow along Mr Duby's point, this is the case for the Hare-Clark system and for a large-scale composite electorate. The three of us have taken up the case of the Forrest bowling club not because we are the single members in that area but because we believe it important for all the people of Canberra.
I also believe - I want to put this very strongly indeed and I hope that there is a member of the Forrest bowling club here - that I represent the best long-run interests of the Forrest bowling club. What are those long-run interests? They are to be worthy members of the ACT community and of the Australian community. They are not to be selfish accruers of high capital development at the expense of the community. They would be ashamed of themselves to be that. I am helping them not to be that.
We need to say to the members of the Forrest bowling club, "Look what you are doing, mates; you have been here, some of you, 30 or 40 years; you know the merits of this city, the merits of the leasehold system, of a system where communities are given grants and then make use of those facilities for the benefit of the community. Look, mates" - I want to say to the Forrest bowling club - "what are you doing? You are feathering your own nest. You know that that is wrong. Can you look in your spouse's face, can you tell your children that what you are doing is right? Can you tell the fellow members of your Forrest community that what you are doing is right? What about the people of Kambah, of Tuggeranong, of Ainslie? They also are part of the community. What you have is a community facility".
I would like to appeal to some of the strongest principles of the Labor Party, principles to do with effective and fair-minded social planning, whether you call that socialism or not. I think that word is in many ways passe. Let us call it effective and fair-minded social planning for the benefit of the entire community, not for the benefit of one small group in one small suburb; neither for the benefit of land developers, nor for a few people with a vested interest.
I ask the Labor Party to uphold the concept, so central to Canberra's life, that public land should be leased in the public interest for community use, schools, churches, and sporting clubs in particular. I ask the Labor Party to support the view that, if a school or a church or a sporting club, or whatever organisation, ceases to carry out the community functions for which the lease was originally given, then the one-time school, church or club should return the land to the community, to the people.
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