Page 2053 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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If we really believe that we have something to offer, let us be bold about it and, Madam Speaker, I hasten to say, let us not get in each other's way in doing so. There is one thing I feel sure that we can all agree on in this place, and that is that we want Australia to prosper, to provide jobs and to have a prosperous and guaranteed future for the generations to come. Madam Speaker, this will not come knocking on our door. We have to go out there in the real world, the competitive world, and go for it hard and strong. We have to be proactive, not reactionary. We have to be on the offensive, not the defensive. We have to be visionary, not closed and introspective.
Madam Speaker, this is why I am so adamant that we need an international airport in our international city. The national capital of any country, more than any other city in that country, must lay claim to being an international city. It is inconceivable that, with only six-and-a-half years to go to the turn of the century, Australia's national capital has no direct international transport connection. I often wonder what the rest of the world thinks of that. Rather mickey mouse, I should think. Perhaps our low profile, our virtually non-existent projection of our national capital to the rest of the world, has some important repercussions in terms of how seriously the rest of the world takes the whole country. In other words, any country that has such a pitifully small perception of its national capital must not have much going for it. No wonder there is the perception overseas that kangaroos hop down our main streets.
Mr Humphries: They do sometimes.
MR WESTENDE: They do sometimes. Madam Speaker, we have to start thinking big - and I mean big - not only in Canberra but as a nation. However, let us set some good examples in Canberra. I welcome the developments on the fast train between Canberra and Sydney. I welcome the proposal for a tollway around Lake George. This is all good stuff. It is in the realm of big thinking. But infrastructure must always precede growth. Infrastructure is the enabling force for growth. The infrastructure development must also be forward thinking. It has to allow for growth. Indeed, it has to be an incentive for growth. It has to motivate and to inspire growth. It has to be the seed for growth.
When it comes to the chicken and the egg analogy, which we talk about in the report, let us stop pussyfooting around and decide that the egg came first. Let us get on with it. It is easy to sit around and wish for something good to happen, such as a sudden surge of international tourism, a demand for Canberra or a rush of investment and business interests in the ACT. But this simply will not happen unless we market ourselves and provide for international facilities. This will happen only when the right environment is created for it. The ACT Government, in association with the private sector, has to take the bold initiatives. It has to bite the bullet. Madam Speaker, we need an international airport in the nation's capital.
Madam Speaker, I have spoken in generalities, and admittedly I have put the emotional view. But it is about time, I believe, that we all became a bit more passionate about what we want to see and then developed the conviction to follow it through. What of the specifics that have been brought out in the report? I believe that the report provides a very comprehensive overview of the issues involved. It has canvassed the views of a wide cross-section of the community involved with the tourism industry, planning issues and the development of the economy generally in Canberra and in the region.
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