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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2582 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

might oppose this were not given the opportunity to discuss it more fully either. But that is the nature of this can-do government. It is the can-do government that has got us into problems - - -

Ms Carnell: We are proud of being a can-do government.

MR BERRY: Yes, as with Bruce Stadium. You would be proud of that. That is your style. You would be proud of that, would you not? There is an issue of safety which I will be watching closely. I do not want to see anybody injured as a result of this event. There is some potential for danger. The event managers know about all of the issues that go with motor racing circuits, and I trust that the money is adequate to provide for all of the safety features that go with a street racing event. If such events are not properly managed, they can be a problem for those people who watch them.

I have one last issue. I know that the motor racing circuit goes past the site for a little monument on the side of the lake. I wonder how that is going to be protected, without going into the detail of it. I think you know what I am talking about. I think some attention has to be paid - - -

Mr Humphries: You would drag that up to score a point against Mrs Carnell. Anything counts as long as you get Mrs Carnell.

MR BERRY: It is an important issue for a lot of people, Mr Humphries. The site has to be protected somehow. I know it is a humiliating embarrassment for you, but the fact of the matter is it is there and you have to protect it, and I trust that you will.

This event will go ahead if at the end of this week the organisers support Canberra as the place to hold it. We hope that in future we will be able to come back to this place and say that there has been a positive outcome for the Territory.

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (11.29), in reply: Mr Speaker, I am very happy to close the debate. I want to thank members at the outset for their support, rather guarded as it might be in some cases, for this important Appropriation Bill. It is, of course, my first appropriation Bill as Treasurer. It is not quite a full budget Bill, but it is my first appropriation Bill. I feel that with its passage I have lost my fiscal virginity, so I am very pleased that the Bill is going to pass through the Assembly today.

It is very important that the two projects which this Bill is designed to fund are able to proceed as soon as possible. Members have heard the arguments put in very clear terms by, respectively, my colleagues the Chief Minister and the Minister for Health for the V8 supercar race in the ACT and for the relocation of the ACT Hospice. The overwhelming necessity for those things to take place is itself a strong recommendation to pass the legislation today.

I want to comment on the Opposition's assertions. We have had a delicate line trodden by this Opposition. They profess not to oppose the legislation, but they have listed a litany of reasons why in other circumstances you would expect them to oppose it. It tells me nothing more nor less than that they are an opposition without the courage of

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