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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 750 ..

MS McRAE (11.29): I seek leave to move together the amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MS McRAE: I move:

(1) Omit paragraph (1), substitute the following new paragraph:

"(1) proceed now that expressions of interest in block 4 section 41 Griffith (the Manuka carpark) have been lodged;"

(2) Paragraph (2), omit "undertake a study, with full public consultation of", substitute "make available for public consultation the Government's analysis and evaluation of each of the proposals, including consideration of".

(3) Add the following new paragraph:

"(3) even if a variation of the Territory Plan is not required, the preferred option is referred to the Assembly for approval."

The amendments now seek to do exactly what the Minister has outlined, and that is to put on the table the considerations that have been put to the Minister; to open up and not keep secret the different proposals; to allow the evaluation of each of the proposals to become public so that no-one is under any delusion that there is a secret deal done or anything that furthers a particular interest over any other. The inclusion of requesting that the Assembly look at the changes is an additional requirement that is not normally imposed in these matters, because normally they would come to the Assembly only were they a variation to the Territory Plan; but, given the heat that was in this and given the sensitivity of the Manuka site, we believe that this is an appropriate addition. I anticipate that the Minister will circulate the further amendment that he wants to put.

Of course, Labor would have no problem with the Minister's right to maintain confidential what has been given to him in confidence, in terms of business-in-confidence material; but, clearly, the public would like to see the various proposals and come to some understanding of why the Minister was advised to go along a particular way and the decision was made in that particular way. Given that there are five proposals, that should be a quite interesting public exercise anyway. So, I commend my amendments to the Assembly. We do not want to stop the process; but we do want to make sure that it is a fair, accountable and open process which enables very thorough public scrutiny of a sensitive and very popular area of Canberra, so that we can be assured, collectively, as an Assembly, that the decisions that are made are actually in the best interests of all concerned.

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