Page 68 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 April 1992
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Madam Speaker, I conclude by offering my congratulations to all members of this Second Assembly upon their election or re-election, as the case may be. I look forward to working with you all in the best interests of the people of this unique Territory.
MR LAMONT (8.37): Madam Speaker, may I also extend to you my warmest congratulations and best wishes in a task which I know you will perform not only with great skill but also with great dignity.
I am very honoured, of course, to find myself in the position of giving my opening address to the ACT Legislative Assembly. I am particularly proud to be able to say that I find myself in this position as someone who was born and bred in the region and who has been closely associated with the public life of Canberra and its surrounds for the whole of my adult life.
When I left my former home town of Braidwood to come to Canberra in 1970, there were two main reasons. First, I was coming here for employment. Secondly, I was coming to a place which suited a country boy in terms of its amenity and its environment. Canberra was not Sydney or Melbourne, and that is the way I liked it. In the 22 years since then, and notwithstanding the wishes of some ill-informed outsiders, Canberra has retained its unique character. Despite its growth, it remains the great bush capital.
But it has grown, and, in so growing, Canberra has come to realise much of that potential which was in evidence to me growing up in the region. Canberra is no longer only the administrative and symbolic capital of the nation nestled in the ACT. It has grown to become the vibrant centre of a much broader region of south-eastern Australia. In a very practical way, Madam Speaker, the decisions we make here will be of importance to people well beyond the ACT border.
The important thing for me, however, has been that, despite Canberra's growth, the two issues which brought me to Canberra in the first place - employment and lifestyle - are still pivotal to the life of Canberra and, I believe, of the utmost importance to the people of Canberra themselves.
Madam Speaker, I am particularly proud to be a part of a government which has placed the issues of employment and Canberra's environment at the centre of its program for Canberra's future. This is a government, a Labor government, which is about creating jobs and a government which places the highest value on the protection of Canberra's natural and cultural heritage. It is a government which, above all else, believes that job growth and the protection of our environment are not goals which are in conflict.
In terms of employment, my Chief Minister has already announced a number of major developments which will generate jobs in the Territory in the short term and the medium term. These have included a casino development, a $200m resort proposal at Gold Creek and proposals for research centres, a medical school, international freight facilities and a $13m switching facility to be developed by Optus Communications. Clearly, Madam Speaker, no-one could accuse this Government of being Luddite. The Government is embracing realistic development proposals and getting on with the task of creating jobs.
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