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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3398 ..

Mr De Domenico: We should just go ahead with it, do you think?

MS HORODNY: No, we absolutely should not be encouraging car rallies around the foreshores of the ACT lakes. Have you, Mr De Domenico, been around any of our lakes lately?

Mr De Domenico: All of them. Have you?

MS HORODNY: Are you aware of the vegetation? Are you aware of the state of the foreshores?

Mr De Domenico: Yes, I am.

Mrs Carnell: But they are going to go on the roads.

Mr De Domenico: They are going to go on the roads, not on the vegetation.

MR SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear Ms Horodny.

MS HORODNY: It is very clear that Mrs Carnell does not know the part of the lake she is talking about. If she went for a little drive or a walk down there and had a look at that part of the lake, she would know that there is no road. The bitumen stops under Kings Avenue Bridge, and then there is a dirt bed, which is already seriously eroded and which needs to be revegetated and closed off, not to have rallies raging through there, I would suggest. I think it is absolutely outrageous. You do not know what you are talking about. It is an area that needs to be treated very sensitively, I would suggest, and not have car rallies through there, for heaven's sake. It is absolutely outrageous.

Even with your poor knowledge of soil and water, go and have a look and see whether you think it is okay to race cars through there. I would suggest that a five-year-old child would tell you that it is not appropriate to take a car through there. It will create an absolute mess and create further siltation problems in that lake, which are already an issue. We have the Jerrabomberra Wetlands in that area, which I suggest you should be monitoring very carefully. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Humphries, should give very serious consideration to letting a car rally through there.

This particular route, as I said, is not on a road, despite the Canberra Times reporting Jim Service, I think it was, as saying that the rally was going on existing roads. There is no road there. There is a dirt track, and it is not one that cars are encouraged to go on, as indeed they should not be. It is an area that needs to be looked at by the Parks and Conservation Service and revegetated; it is an absolute mess. We do not need any more siltation running into the lake. It is a serious issue in the ACT already. Siltation is the No. 1 pollutant in our lakes. Do you understand the implications of that?

Mr De Domenico: I do not think you do.

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