Page 1428 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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Twin Cities Arrangements
MR KAINE: I address a question to the Chief Minister. I draw the Chief Minister's attention to the May issue of Business Journal, which is issued by the ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On the front page is a photograph of a couple of ACT businessmen and some Japanese businessmen signing an agreement which twins Nara in Japan and Canberra, and alongside it is the note:
This formal relationship should promote Canberra as another destination for Japanese business to Australia and further cultural and commercial relationships to the benefit of Canberra and the Region.
Chief Minister, there is a notable omission from that photograph. There is not a single ACT government official there. Does that indicate the interest of the ACT Government in this agreement, given its potential benefits? Secondly, if that does indicate the level of interest, how is it that the Government has little or no interest in this kind of twinning arrangement, given the benefits that can flow from it?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I thank Mr Kaine for the question. I do not believe that I have that particular journal on my desk, but I am quite happy to accept Mr Kaine's word about its front cover at least. Madam Speaker, it has been my view - and it is well known to the Chamber of Commerce, I believe - that twinning arrangements should be instituted by the community and percolate up to the Government to then take action upon. I do not believe that it is appropriate for a government to set out unilaterally to negotiate a twinning arrangement between any two cities. I think that is quite the wrong way to go. To impose a view upon the community is likely to be counterproductive when it comes to the real exchanges and the real benefits that ought to follow under a twinning arrangement.
Madam Speaker, I have been aware that the chambers of commerce of Nara and Canberra have been engaged in negotiations on forming twin chambers of commerce, and those negotiations have been successfully completed. I still have on my own agenda the future of a twinning arrangement between Canberra and Nara. Madam Speaker, there are attractions in such an arrangement, not the least of which is the economic benefit to the ACT of a closer relationship with an appropriate Japanese city. I will be pursuing this matter through the normal channels; that is, through discussions and negotiations with interested community groups - and there are several in addition to the Chamber of Commerce.
I think it is important before any such twinning arrangements are entered into by a government that the community expresses an interest in those arrangements and that it will not simply be a case of the Government imposing its view on the community. That is the way that I will be pursuing the matter. I have requests for quite a number of twinning arrangements under consideration at the moment. Nara is the most advanced of those arrangements. It is appropriate that we draw up some guidelines, some working rules, for twinning arrangements, given that I have received quite a number of proposals. But in whatever guidelines, whatever working arrangements, are made I would require that there be a community-up consultation process rather than the Government issuing an edict.
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