Page 4195 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 29 November 1994
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My department had included in the latest land development program a release for a service trades mixed use site of up to 8,500 square metres in the town centre area. However, when the department became aware of the Leda proposal, the site was withdrawn, and it will not be offered until after the comprehensive study has been completed. These studies, these reasonable, sensible and appropriate approaches, will enable us to develop a retail sites release program for endorsement. Once adopted, the program will form the basis for the release of suitable land at the right time to meet commercial interests and the needs of residents.
I simply ask members, and anybody interested - and there is a deal of interest in that community - to contrast the two approaches. I say again: Try to find a consistent pattern from Mrs Carnell. Try to find exactly what she is saying. Get some view of how it changes from day to day. It has been reactive. She jumps up and down and says, "No. No, we cannot do this".
Mr Lamont: Change your mind tomorrow.
MR WOOD: Change it again tomorrow. Contrast that with the proper approach by the Government, which is to give the reasonable, long, consultative period to determine all the issues, to find out what all the people want - not just what sectional interests want - and to make a decision on balanced, intelligent and reasonable grounds. Mrs Carnell, I think, stands condemned for her approach in this way. It is a totally irresponsible approach, and one that I know is already getting her into trouble in the community. It is one she cannot sustain, and I think it has caused her very much damage.
MR KAINE (3.43): Mr Lamont immediately becomes concerned when I get to my feet, because he is going to hear some things that he does not want to hear. I suppose that he is the next speaker, and I am going to demolish his arguments before he even gets to his feet.
Mr Lamont: No; we would rather Mrs Carnell remain in confusion than you try to sort her out.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I suggest that there is no confusion whatsoever on this side of the house about the issue that we are debating.
Mr Wood: What public statements have you made?
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I would remind Mr Wood that I have been in this Assembly for a long time and I have made many statements over the last 20 years, in fact, about the need to support small business in Canberra. I think that I was talking about small business being the engine of growth and employment opportunity in this city for five years before the Chief Minister started to ape what I said. She uses my very words to this day. In fact, she used them in a statement only in the last week. If you go back through the Hansard of previous years you will discover who it was who coined those phrases. C'est moi. I do not think that I have to apologise for standing up today and defending the position that the Liberal Party has taken for many years. When it was not popular with the Labor Party, in opposition or in government, to support small business in this town, the Liberal Party always did, because we believe in free enterprise.
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