Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3933 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I heard quite a number of people saying, "Fancy presenting something like this to us. It is entirely unprepared. They hardly have any ideas". There is simply no way to win on this consultation process. I think it is worth assessing whether we are always going to have some people who are unhappy. That probably will be the process.

What we need to do is ensure that we do get a good process, and I think that is the most important reason for referring this to the committee. But there are other reasons, Mr Speaker. I have had quite a number of letters from Ainslie residents, as I presume has been the case for other members. I will read a short excerpt from a letter from Helen Ennis, the chair of the Ainslie Residents Association, about an inquiry like this. Referring to the motion I have before the Assembly, she wrote:

We would welcome this initiative which we believe would be viewed positively by Ainslie residents.

We are writing therefore to seek your assurance that such an inquiry will be established. We would also be grateful if further information ...

So, Mr Speaker, that is where we are at. With reference to the proposals themselves, I have long stood in this Assembly and said that I have real doubts about urban infill. I am quite comfortable about associating myself with the recent publication by Professor Patrick Troy on urban infill. It was not designed specifically for Canberra but rather was about Australia as a whole. He suggested that claims of environmental gains through urban infill are nonsense. He very carefully analysed them and I believe he did so very appropriately. That is not to say that there can never be any urban infill.

Mr Katz flew in from the United States and said that Canberra is terrible; it is like a ballroom waiting for the ball, or words to that effect. Mr Speaker, I dismiss those sorts of claims from an outsider coming in with preconceived ideas. On the contrary, I have many visitors from overseas who say, "How can you be so lucky as to live in such an environment as Canberra?".

Ms McRae: Because you are rich, Michael.

MR MOORE: The interjection from Ms McRae is, "Because you are rich".

MR SPEAKER: Which is out of order.

MR MOORE: It might be, but I am going to take it on, Mr Speaker. If that is the case, Mr Speaker, it was through my own efforts. My wife and I have been schoolteachers from the - - -

Ms McRae: It was because you were born with a brain, Michael. Give us a break.

MR MOORE: What was that?

Ms McRae: Try being born disabled. Try being born to a poor family.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .