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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 596 ..

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the Chief Minister.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, surely this Assembly has debated this issue enough. We have debated it constantly since 1995. Certainly, there are people who do not agree with the Acton-Kingston land swap. There are people in this place who do not agree with having the National Museum on Acton, but one of the things we - - -

Mr Berry: You said we all agreed. You were sure we all agreed a little while ago.

MRS CARNELL: No; I said everyone agreed with the National Museum. I hope everyone does that. What we have to do now is not give the Federal Government even one opportunity to blink on this. We have an undertaking from the Prime Minister in writing, in person, in front of a couple of hundred people. I understand that he is pushing hard for that. The question everybody needs to ask is: Why would you support this motion?

Ms Tucker: Because we want a chance to look at the agreement.

MRS CARNELL: I know why you would. But why would anybody else support this motion? The reality is that we have already gutted buildings. As everybody would know - - -

Members interjected.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

MRS CARNELL: Thank you. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the buildings, particularly the tower block at the hospital, have been gutted already. We have made it clear that we started the demolition a month ago, as soon as the agreement was in place. The toilets, all of those things, have been pulled out. There is absolutely no reason - there is no benefit at all - not to pull the buildings down now. Why would you do it? Why would you leave up a building that has been gutted? All of the internal demolition has been completed.

Members interjected.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! There is too much conversation. There are about six different conversations at the moment. Just keep it quiet.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. We have the Acton site with a commitment from the Federal Government to build a museum on it. On it now we have a tower block on which the internal demolition has been carried out already. We have a child-care facility with no children because they have all moved. We have Sylvia Curley House and there is now an agreement for all of the people there to be out by mid-April. We have nobody else on that part of the site that will be demolished. Why would we not demolish? The buildings cannot be used again. They are far too far gone now to use again at all. So why would we not go ahead with the demolition of those buildings? Is there an answer to that? The fact is that there is not.

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