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Mr Berry: Not now, you won’t.

MR HUMPHRIES: Not now, not before, not ever. I assure you that if we are in that position it is because we have planned to put before the people of the Territory clearly what we want to do. We have made our intentions clear, and we come to this place to tell the people in this place what it is that we want to do. That is the approach we are taking with open government. We are acutely aware that we have only seven seats in this place. That is why we intend to make sure that, if people in this place have a legitimate concern that we know about in advance, those changes will come before this place before they are made.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Wood, do you wish to speak to the amendment?

MR WOOD (11.53), in reply: Mr Speaker, I will speak to the amendment and conclude the debate. The Opposition is more than satisfied with Mr Moore's amendment. I think some people were not listening to me when I spoke and said that my main purpose in moving the motion was to put the issue in front of us all and to raise a debate. I am delighted that it has done so. We will accept the amendment. Mr Humphries said that the former Labor Government had not been consistent. That seems strange to me, because in all the time of the Labor Government there was no change to the principles that applied. That seems to me to be consistency. Let us understand also what you can and cannot do under that Federal legislation. What the Liberals were proposing to do, as set out in their policy documents, did not need any change to Commonwealth legislation. It could be done simply by administrative action or, if they wanted to, by legislation. If they do not bring in some legislation, someone else may do so. So, there is no fall-back or defence in saying that they were inhibited by Commonwealth legislation.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

NOISE POLLUTION

MR MOORE (11.55): I move:

That the Government take appropriate action to ensure that local residents, whether in New South Wales or ACT, are adequately protected from noise pollution.

Mr Speaker, 20 years ago, when racing first started in this area, a recommendation was made by the Commonwealth Government that a systematic assessment of the environmental impact of this activity in the ACT be made. This impact assessment was meant to be made before racing began in this area, as it was deemed by the NCDC to be too close to residential areas. Such an impact assessment has never been undertaken. This recommendation came out of a report that referred at the time only to dirt track racing. The report stated:

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