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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3018 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

That document says that instead of route 409 there is a revised route 407/408 which happens to stop at exactly the same place as the current route 409 stops at. In other words, those residents of Collingrove Court would have a bus, probably not the same number, stop exactly where the bus stops now - at the bus stop which is right in front of where they live. Mr Stefaniak and Mr Hird know that, because they confirmed that with me back in June and July, as Mr Berry should have done before he used those residents for his own political purposes. That is point No. 1.

I was delighted that Mr Berry continued to use the reference that he was the only person in this place who had any empathy with small business. He concentrated on only those small businesses in Kippax. He did not talk about the small businesses at the Charnwood shops or the small businesses at the Hawker shops - all in his electorate. I can guarantee Mr Berry that, if I went down to the Charnwood shops and said to them, "Would you prefer the bus to stop just at your shopping centre and not at Kippax?", they would all say, "Yes. Give us 49,000 copies of a petition. We think that is a great idea". If I went to the Hawker shops and said the same thing to the small businesses at the Hawker shops, they would also say, "Yes. Forget about Kippax and forget about Charnwood. We reckon the Hawker shops are the place where every bus in Belconnen should stop". That is half of the point.

Mr Berry made no mention whatsoever of how empathetic he was with the one small business that got national coverage on television about three weeks ago, the Parliament House bookshop. There was no mention of how concerned he was about what happened to that small business.

Mr Berry: It is owned by the Government. Small business?

MR DE DOMENICO: "It is owned by the Government", he says, so it is no longer a business! It is a small business which is a finalist in the tourism awards and which buses stop in front of.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to Mr De Domenico's commentary on a small business as it relates to this bus issue. You may wish to express a view on that.

MR DE DOMENICO: Small businesses that buses stop in front of include the bookshop at Parliament House. It is not in Mr Berry's electorate; it is in the Molonglo electorate. Mr Berry did not talk about the ravaging of that small business by the CFMEU.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Relevance, Mr De Domenico.

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry talks about flattening small businesses. We know what the CFMEU did to that small business. They literally flattened it with sledge hammers and missiles. On behalf of all the members of this Assembly, let me formally thank Mr Berry for providing details of his motion, albeit a day after he provided it to the Canberra Chronicle and perhaps to other media outlets. That is perhaps some indication of the esteem in which Mr Berry holds this Assembly. Let us look carefully at the wording of Mr Berry's motion and the leaked document he claims to be basing his concerns on.

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