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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1395 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

You would not have it under a Labor government". It is in your hands, Mr Corbell. Vote against the fee and it will not happen. I think that people will appreciate what is available at Tidbinbilla. This fee, which is based on a Labor Party idea, is one which I think the people of the ACT will be prepared to pay. That certainly was the finding here.

Mr Corbell: We rejected it.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Corbell says, "We rejected this". Let me ask Mr Corbell a question. If you rejected the idea of fees, why did you commission a study into how they could be imposed?

Mr Corbell: We rejected them, though.

MR HUMPHRIES: You did not reject them. You were getting ready to charge these fees.

MR SPEAKER: A rhetorical question, Mr Corbell.

MR HUMPHRIES: In fact, I can quote from an answer that Mr Wood gave to a question by Mrs Carnell. I do not know the date of it, but it is question No. 1127 in the Second Assembly. The answer by Mr Wood - he is looking a bit downcast at the moment - - -

Mr Wood: Not at all. History is on our side.

MR HUMPHRIES: Are they beads of sweat on your brow, Mr Wood? Someone pass him a tissue. I quote from this answer about fees at the parks:

There is no proposal at this stage to implement fees for ranger conducted night walks at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve or any other reserve or national park ...

Do not forget that at this stage there were no fees in those places. This was to be reviewed upon completion of the marketing strategy. Here is the marketing strategy.

Mr Corbell: You are the one who implemented it, Gary, not us.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, you cannot weasel out of this, Mr Corbell. You commissioned the strategy. You were getting ready to charge the fees. You were going to wait till after the 1995 election and then when the election was out of the way, you were going to introduce the fees. Unfortunately, you were not in government when the time came.

Ms Reilly: But you did it.

MR HUMPHRIES: Absolutely; and you would have done it, too.

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