Page 660 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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Aboriginal Advisory Council, the new Canberra flag. I have no objection to any one of the priorities on the list I have read out being raised. I may not agree with them, but that is a different matter. However, it is not an impressive list. Once again I can only assume that the Government has more up its sleeve but does not want to reveal it.
The Chief Minister's speech outlining the Government's priorities was lacking in vision, lacking in sensitivity to the real issues facing our community and, most of all, lacking in direction. The Government is letting down the community very badly.
MR LAMONT (4.31): It gives me great pleasure to rise to support the program that has been outlined by the Chief Minister. It gives me pleasure for a number of reasons, not the least of which was covered quite admirably at a Business Council, ACT Government and University of Canberra organised luncheon today, where the guest speaker - one of a series of guest speakers - was Mr Kerry Stokes, the current owner of the Canberra Times and former owner of Capital Television in the ACT.
Anybody listening to the members opposite this afternoon, particularly the last speaker, Mr Westende, must believe that they and Mr Stokes have been talking about two entirely different places. Indeed, Mr Stokes, a business person of some considerable substance, who has been involved in a wide range of business activities in the ACT over an extensive period and who has been involved in appointments to boards such as the National Capital Development Commission, as it then was, and a range of other bodies in the ACT, made the firm comment that what is happening in Canberra, with the assistance of the ACT Government, is something which is to be applauded. On the one hand, we have the prophets of doom and gloom on the other side, who are suggesting that business does this and business does that; and, on the other hand, we have a practising business person, someone of great stature and substance in our ACT community, I would suggest, who is saying something entirely different. One does not ring true. I suggest to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that it is the comments that have been made by those on the opposite side of this chamber.
If we have a look at the economic development issues, which are in fact referred to in the Chief Minister's priorities document, it is quite clear that there is indeed a cohesive policy; that there is indeed a direction which the Government has set; and that the Government has been successful in achieving the milestones on the road that it has set for itself. It is successful. It is recognised by the business community as being successful. Obviously, it is not recognised by the prophets of doom and gloom that Mr De Domenico, Mr Westende and Mr Kaine speak to. That is certainly not the message that I get as I go around the ACT community - at sporting, cultural or business levels. It is certainly not the message that I get in relation to people who are attempting to do business in the ACT.
It is certainly not the message that I got when I attended a meeting at the Australian National University to discuss the ANU's proposal for a technology precinct to facilitate interrelationships between centres of excellence such as the ANU and business. That is certainly not the impression that I got from the businesses there. It is not the impression that I got from other companies operating in the high-tech, IT area. It is not the impression that I get when I talk to people in the real estate industry who are responsible for leasing buildings in the ACT on a commercial basis. So what in fact has happened here is that the people opposite - the carpers opposite - have believed their own press.
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