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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4543 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Under the legislation that was in place prior to the introduction of the Environment Protection Act, noise at the Ridgeway was restricted to 41 to 42 decibels. What I am proposing in my motion to amend the regulation is that the level be at 45 decibels. Mr Speaker, the Government, in turn, has said, "No, what we are going to do is increase that; we are going to make the noise level 50 decibels", which is different from any other place in Canberra.

There is a great deal of debate as to what this means and what it does not mean. The debate has been particularly peppered by the Minister sitting over there - the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Mr Stefaniak - throwing furphies into the debate. One that has been attributed to Mr Stefaniak - and I hope that he will correct me by saying that it was not he who said it - was that this regulation would prevent the FAI rally from going ahead and would prevent the Summernats at Watson. That is simply untrue. If Mr Stefaniak said that, he should apologise to the people of Canberra for those comments that were attributed to him. I hope that he can stand up here and say, "No, they were not appropriately attributed" or that I have misunderstood and they should have been attributed to somebody else.

The regulation in Schedule 2 on page 27 limits motor sport activities conducted at Fairbairn Park. It deliberately deals with Fairbairn Park and says that the activity has to be conducted between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm and that any noise being emitted must not exceed 50 dB(A) at the latitude and longitude given. Mr Speaker, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the FAI rally. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Summernats. It is very specific. Why have we had an approach like that from Mr Stefaniak and from the motor sports? Why are they being dishonest? That is what it is; it is dishonesty.

Mr Speaker, I have had many approaches to my office, as I am sure have other members, from people saying, "What are you going to do? Why are you stopping the FAI rally? Why are you stopping Summernats?". We are not; it is part of a furphy. If you are going to say, "Why are you going to stop some races at Fairbairn Park?" we begin to have an argument, and a reasonable argument. That argument was dealt with by the committee in detail. We looked at the difference between how the ACT's Pollution Control Authority monitored the response of the New South Wales Environment Protection Agency and how they measured the ambient noise level at the Ridgeway. There were slight differences in method and, therefore, differences in outcome. What we recognised when we saw the differences in method and differences in outcome is that comparisons with New South Wales, saying that we are having exactly the same as New South Wales, are simply erroneous. That is what the Minister for Sport continued to do.

Why the Minister for Sport? Yes, this is an issue between sport and the environment. I understand that motor racing does come under his portfolio. But the reality is that Mr Humphries is the Minister for the Environment and it was his role to protect the environment. It was his role to ensure that the environment for people in our community is protected. In saying "our community" I recognise that there is a border there, a line drawn between Queanbeyan and the ACT. I think I have heard Mr Stefaniak say on radio, "Why does Mr Moore bother about these 20 or so people who do not even vote in the ACT?". The reason is that Mr Moore and the Assembly committee made this decision

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