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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3275 ..

Debate resumed from 28 August 1997, on motion by Ms Reilly:

That the petition on the Curtin Shopping Precinct be referred to the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment.

MR MOORE (11.11): This motion to refer a petition to a committee is also a precedent. It seems to be a morning for precedents. It is a matter that the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment has discussed in its meeting, and we feel very comfortable with the idea. In fact, I would say that it is an interesting precedent that Ms Reilly has put to the Assembly. Petitions could be dealt with in a positive way not just by Ministers but by a committee. Petitions do have a way of disappearing in the Assembly. We need to improve our processes for petitions, and I thank Ms Reilly for highlighting that for us. In the normal course of events, petitions ought to go, first and foremost, to the Minister; but the Minister ought to come back to the Assembly and tell us how he has handled them. Mr Speaker, the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment will take this matter seriously. If it is the will of the Assembly to support Ms Reilly's motion and refer this matter to the committee, the committee will be happy to report back to the Assembly on the actions taken.

MS REILLY (11.13), in reply: I thank Mr Moore and the other members of the Planning and Environment Committee and congratulate them on taking up this petition and the matters that I raised through the petition. I think it is very important for the people who signed the petition and other people who use and live in the Curtin area to know that some action will now be taken in relation to the Curtin shops. I think it is a very sad and sorry tale if we look at some of the issues. Last week we had a lot of discussion in this place about consultation processes. I think we can see a consultation process that is not working at all.

Earlier this year, out of sheer frustration, the Curtin Traders Association wrote to the responsible Minister about the conditions around the Curtin shops. They drew the Minister's attention to the need for upgrading and to the use of tables and chairs in the square at the Curtin shops. The Minister went out and talked with these people in April, but the matter seems to have fallen into a black hole. Nothing else has happened. The Curtin traders were assured that their concerns would be considered and possibly included in the 1997-98 budget. In fact, they were given the impression that that was going to happen. The budget came out, and Curtin was not mentioned. It seems to have fallen off the program entirely. The people at Curtin have not been able to get any action to take the matter further. Therefore, they have taken other action.

The responsible Minister made outrageous allegations of collusion between one of the shopowners in the Curtin precinct and a member of this place to get Curtin to jump ahead on the program. There was never any suggestion that Curtin wanted to jump ahead. They just want to be included in the program. They do not want to continue to be ignored, as they have been for so many years. The accusations about collusion against a very busy, very important business person in Curtin are outrageous. He has been

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