Page 5353 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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There is nothing worse than people finding out after the event - as will be the case, I would suggest, with a lot of the areas dealt with in the draft Territory Plan - and being told, "Sorry; it is too late. You have already had your opportunity". The fact that people will not know about these things or will have to pay for the documents themselves is, I would suggest, most unfortunate. When the Rally takes some control of this area after the next election, we would seek to redress this issue and make sure that the information is available to the public. I believe - and I argued for it when I was in government - that these items should be freely available to the public and that there should be no charge for them.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.35): Mr Jensen has just demonstrated his incredible ability to see only the black, none of the white and none of the grey. Of course, he cannot resist the temptation to have a kick and a punch at the Liberal and Labor parties on the way and point out that the Rally rides along on its white horse defending everybody's interests. Well, it does not. The fact is that Mr Jensen has seen only the black here.
There is no suggestion in this wording that copies of these documents will not be made available by the Government free. The way I read this clause was that there would be a community consultation process; interested people would be sent copies of these documents, just as they are now; but, if one chose, one could go along to these places and buy another copy, or somebody who did not get one, if that person so chose, could go along and buy one.
There is nothing in here that says that the normal consultation process will not be put into effect. So, Mr Jensen, I think, is reading into this something that is not there. He is seeing phantoms behind every bush. He might like to reread the clauses and see what they actually say before trying to remove the right of any citizens to go to one of these places and buy a set of these documents if they so choose, whether to supplement the ones that they have got for free, because they want to take to them with the scissors and paste or for some other reason - or even because there might be some people out there who have no objection, if they did not get a freebie, to going along and paying their $2 to get a copy.
By taking out of this clause the words that would allow people to go and buy one if they want to, I think Mr Jensen would be closing off some options, and, in my view, to no effect.
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