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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (22 May) . . Page.. 1600 ..
Mr De Domenico: There they are. Have you read them?
MS HORODNY: Interesting. Okay. I would be very happy to table that.
Ms Follett: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I have heard you caution Mr De Domenico six times in a row in an attempt to bring him to order. I suggest to you that he is persistently defying your order, and you ought to take the appropriate action.
MR SPEAKER: I have called Mr De Domenico once by name, but I would remind all members that this is a debate, not a free-for-all. I insist on order being maintained.
MS HORODNY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to go through some of the arguments that members here have put forward against this, and I will begin with Mr Kaine. Mr Kaine said a number of things earlier today, but I would like to quote from Hansard of November 1994 when this issue was discussed. Mr Kaine was talking about small business being the engine of growth and employment opportunity in this city. He said that people "want to be able to hop down to the corner store on a Sunday afternoon and buy something if they need it quickly"; that "people want access to a wide range of shopping facilities, some nearby and some a little more remote". He also said:
When we get into a debate about which shopping centres should expand and which ones should not, we should not allow ourselves to be drawn into a debate about whether we need small business or big business; we obviously need both ... They -
the public, that is -
do not want to see the big shopping centres grow to such an extent that the small local shopping centres are forced to close down ...
He went on to say:
How does one strike the balance? The balance can be struck only by government exercising its prerogative and its discretion about what gets done where ...
He went on to say:
... this is a planned city. ... It is a city where government decision affects everything. This Government has no compunction whatsoever about making a major decision that is forcing petrol station owners into bankruptcy. Why do they have a problem with the notion that they should exercise their discretion and their judgment about a decision as to whether the Hyperdome should expand?
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