Page 5066 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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demonstration by a group calling themselves Women Against Aidex. They met by the War Memorial and paid their respects to women who lost their lives in war; they then marched into the city. That demonstration was supervised by the police, traffic arrangements were put into place, and the demonstration was peaceful and dignified. The organisers of the demonstration have publicly thanked Superintendent Rowley, the officer in charge of the particular AFP contingent.
We have seen a peaceful and dignified expression of opposition to the arms sales. The police have supervised the demonstration and have defended the rights of individuals to express their views. I am sure that Mr Kaine, even though he may disagree with the views being expressed, would also respect people's right to express them. That demonstration occurred peacefully, the police and demonstrators cooperated in a peaceful manner, and there has been a public appreciation of the police role by those demonstrators.
I can only implore anyone involved in the demonstrations to keep that peaceful approach. We can then have a peaceful exhibition of opposition to the arms sales and not the mindless violence that has so far marred the exhibition and cost the taxpayer of this Territory a significant amount.
MR KAINE: I ask a supplementary question. It has to do with the second part of my question. Whether one agrees with Aidex as an exhibition that we would like to have in Canberra or not, it has been said that there has been a considerable potential loss of revenue to our economy. That can come in two ways, of course: One is by people being frightened away and not coming in the first place; the second is that some element of that defence business is centred on Canberra. A figure of $10m has been placed on that. I wonder whether the Government has any indication as to whether that is a reasonable figure.
MR CONNOLLY: That $10m figure is not supported by the smallest shred of evidence available to the Government. It seems to be concocted simply for propaganda reasons. I think the most significant aspect of this is that, when we expressed the view that there would be no further Aidexes, it was said that other States would be falling over themselves to host a future Aidex. As far as I am aware, no other State or Territory has expressed any enthusiasm for hosting this type of event, because of the obvious massive cost of maintaining law and order. It is clearly a drain on the public purse of whatever jurisdiction chooses to hold it.
As to the Federal Government choosing to host a future Aidex on Defence property, which I have heard Sir William Keys suggest will be the way forward, I can only say that, if the Commonwealth Government wants to do that, let the Commonwealth Government pay the cost of maintaining public security and not make it a burden upon the ACT taxpayer.
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