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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 683 ..

MR KAINE: I will continue to try to answer - - -

Mr Whitecross: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I know that Mrs Carnell has given you your riding instructions on this, but - - -

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I rise - - -

Mr Whitecross: Mr Speaker, I withdraw any aspersions against you. It is just that I cannot help noticing that Mrs Carnell keeps giving you lots of advice. Mr Speaker, how can you rule that a member reflecting on another member's capacity is in order, but Mr Berry reflecting on Mr Walker's self-description as vice-president is out of order? You have to be consistent.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Whitecross.

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. You would allow me to call Mr Kaine the ageing and ever so overexperienced member of this parliament, would you? I seriously question your ruling, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: No, I would not allow that. There is no point of order. I will, however, invite the erudite Mr Kaine to continue.

MR KAINE: I am fascinated. Today the Opposition decided to give me a barrage of questions, presumably on the assumption that I would buckle; but now all they can do is raise points of order because I have them on the back foot. They have to raise points of order and break up the answer.

I get back to my answer. In recent years several studies have been carried out into the economic viability and flow-on benefits of a very high speed train, including a major one done by the ACT Government itself only six years or so ago. The findings of that study are still not obsolete by any standard. They still stand today, as they did in 1990-91. That study clearly established that the project will fundamentally alter the economic centre of gravity in the south-eastern corner of Australia, with millions of dollars worth of direct benefits to the ACT as well as many new jobs and substantial growth in average household incomes. Those are the defined benefits. Mr Corbell, the new kid on the block, presumably did not know this, because he was still at school at the time. He is in a new school now and if he listens quietly he might learn something.

Mr Whitecross: You are covering yourself in glory, Trevor.

MR KAINE: At least I have you on the back foot. The high-speed train benefits identified as long ago as 1990 could only be greater today, especially with the urgency of the need for new jobs for Canberrans as well as tourism growth and general fiscal injection. Nothing has changed. The need is even more important. The last thing we need is another time-wasting, Labor-sponsored committee. Labor wants us to stop and study it to death. We should instead devote our positive energies towards selecting as soon as possible the best technology for the new high-speed train link. That will be done, and it will bring substantive benefits when it is.

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