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MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (11.26), in reply: I am very flattered to be complimented in this way by Mr Kaine. Mr Kaine is a former Planning Minister. He knows what he is talking about and I find it very flattering to think that a - - -

Mr De Domenico: He made some decisions, too, as Planning Minister.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. Of course, Mr Kaine was one of the early architects of the Territory Plan. He put a great deal of time and effort into getting that ready for the next Government to enact. There is some irony in the comments of Mr Wood. He said that the former Government did not have sole ownership of the problems in planning. That was a fairly extraordinary statement. I hope that it cuts both ways. I hope that if and when the Government gets into difficulty with planning issues - and I have to confess that I do not expect that we will not get into difficulty on some issues - Mr Wood will be as anxious to share ownership of those problems as he is to share ownership of his own problems.

Mr Speaker, let me, first of all, make a few points about comments made by Ms Horodny. I do not think she was listening when Mr De Domenico made them. I want to make them very clear. I would be grateful if she did not say some of the things she said in here out in the community, because they are quite untrue and, I think, would cause unnecessary alarm in some quarters. Mr Speaker, the first of those is that the Tuggeranong Hyperdome is certain to go ahead with a massive extension to provide for a very large number of new shops there. There is no such guarantee of that happening. Indeed, when this Government rejected the initial application by Leda Holdings to extend the Hyperdome - a proposal which, incidentally, was sponsored by the previous Government - we made it clear that there should not be extensions to the Hyperdome which would prejudice the operations of existing shops in the Tuggeranong Valley. We have made that perfectly clear. We know that the previous Government was dead keen on those extensions and had all but approved them. They had a very close relationship with Leda Holdings to get those things to happen. That is not the case with this Government. We have already given clear notice to other major shopping centres proposing extensions that they must justify their extensions in terms of the effect on existing small business in Canberra. That is a matter which the former Government had absolutely no regard for.

Mr Speaker, it was suggested that the supermarket at the Conder shops would be 3,500 square metres. That is totally false. I do not know whom Ms Horodny got the information from, but she should not say those things unless she checks them. That is not true. The Government will be approving - - -

Mr Berry: You should use the same caution, Minister. You do not use the same caution in your own statements in this debate.

MR HUMPHRIES: When we get to the budget today, we will see how much of what you have had to say about the budget during the last week is factual. According to you, we will be selling off the Namadgi National Park, selling the Street Theatre, selling the Canberra Theatre and putting tolls on Northbourne Avenue. We will see it all this afternoon. We will see who is accurate on statements about government policy.


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