Page 4475 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The facts as I know them are as follows: In 1989 the then Minister for Sport sought the involvement of the motor sport community in building a motor racing circuit at the then Australian Federal Police driver training circuit at Sutton Park. A proposal to undertake redevelopment of that site was recommended to the Government by the consultant to the project, the engineer from the Adelaide Formula One Grand Prix and the head of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sports. The proposal to convert the virtually unused complex to a community motor sport and driver training complex was enthusiastically supported by the new Alliance Government when it gained power.
On 26 January 1990 - this is a key point - the project received the support of the joint parties. The ACT Motorsport Council was requested to take a leading role in discussions with the various parties on behalf of the Government. The Australian Federal Police, however, with reasonable justification, claimed compensation of $1.6m for Sutton Park. This brought the ACT Government proposal to a stop, at least for the time being. On 14 February 1990, acting expressly on behalf of the ACT Government, Mr Arthur Hoyle of the ACT Motorsport Council reached an agreement with the Australian Federal Police on draft terms for a no cost release of the Sutton Park facility to the ACT community - a remarkable result. In response to a written request from the relevant Minister, the Australian Federal Police advised the Department of Administrative Services of the terms of the draft agreement, pending ACT Government confirmation.
On 1 March 1990 the head of the Housing and Community Services Bureau wrote to the Australian Federal Police seeking its agreement to the terms negotiated on the department's behalf by Mr Hoyle. This letter contained all the essential terms agreed to on 14 February. This was confirmed in writing to the ACT Motorsport Council on 5 March 1990. At this point what still needed to be done was to negotiate away the $1.6m which the Commonwealth Department of Administrative Services required before they would release the site. The ACT Government Law Office, however, had advised the ACT Government on 2 November 1989 that "if the Commonwealth does not relinquish the site, it may be difficult to force them to do so". Bearing in mind the Gowrie Hostel fiasco of a few months later, this was, indeed, sound advice.
This minor miracle was achieved, as had been most of the other hard work in this enterprise, by the Motorsport Council, with Mr Hoyle again acting at the request of the ACT Government. This was done by the simple expedient of direct negotiations with the Administrative Services Minister, Senator Nick Bolkus. The Federal Government certainly deserves commendation for their sensible handling of this matter. The Motorsport Council thus achieved agreement on a no cost transfer of the Sutton Park facility as a community motor sport and driver training facility for the ACT. This meant that, at this stage, the citizens of the ACT had received, free of charge, the use of and income from a multimillion dollar facility with only an obligation to provide occasional access for the Australian Federal Police. All this was achieved through the actions of a few citizens and the cooperation of a few key players. The agreement by which this had been achieved has never been honoured by the ACT Government. However, actions were taken which set in train events which would deprive the community of the considerable income from this valuable facility.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .