Page 3777 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (10.43): It is amazing how quickly time passes, is it not, when one looks back on this process? I hope that we are now at the end of it. It was nearly five years ago that the first announcement about a casino in Canberra was made by a Federal Minister - before self-government - and that Minister gave an indication of what the premium would be used for. It has taken us this long to get to this point. As I say, I hope that this is the end of the process and that the Government adopts these recommendations and implements them.
The chairman of the committee has outlined in broad terms the nature of the problems that we were confronted with - $180m worth of wish lists on the one hand and $19m available on the other. I believe that the committee has done a very worthwhile and practical job in condensing the list of applicants to the ones that we have recommended. There are seven recommendations, and five of them have to do with the actual disposition of the money. The other two are recommendations to the Government about the use of existing facilities - for example, the Kingston foreshores and endorsement of a recommendation from the earlier select committee about some concentration of cultural and heritage facilities in the Childers Street/Kingsley Street area. I do not intend to pursue those. I think that those recommendations stand on their merits. I think they have long been in the minds of a lot of us as areas that should be developed and should include at least some cultural, heritage and community facilities.
I do want to comment on a couple of the recommendations about the money, because that is what this exercise was really about. I think the committee had in mind, and there was clearly a strong community belief, that we should have regard for the facilities that exist already. I do not think it was open to us to ignore the existing facilities and charge off like the rider who jumped on his horse and galloped off in all directions. We had to have regard to the facilities that are there and how they might best be used in the future in a total plan for cultural, heritage and community commitment. We had to note the fact that there is, for example, a theatre complex in Civic Centre. We could not simply ignore that. There is a community theatre which the Government has already funded in the Childers Street area. These are realities and they cannot be ignored. You have to take account of how they fit into the scheme of things. So, there were givens. We did not have a tabula rasa to start with.
I would like to note particularly, Madam Speaker, that the committee was unanimous in the view that the first priority in spending this money should be recognition of the Aboriginal community. That, I believe, was the unanimous view. I believe that that was so, not so much because of what is happening across Australia but because a small number of Aboriginal people came to the committee and eloquently stated their case. I think that people like Jirra Moore and Matilda House are to be complimented on their commitment to ensuring that this community recognises its responsibilities and its commitment to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That is why that is the first recommendation. It is no coincidence; it is not an error and it is not something that just happened. It is there because we were convinced by these people of the justice of their case.
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