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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2583 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

their convictions. They would quite like to knock this Bill on the head on one or other, or maybe even both, of the issues but do not have the courage to face the motor racing community in Canberra or the hospice community in Canberra and tell them, "We do not want to support your important measures".

We heard an extraordinary speech from Mr Berry in which he told us all about the things he dislikes about the V8 race but tried to mix in assertions that he supports it and hopes it will be successful. Methinks he doth protest too much. I am always very happy to circulate Mr Berry's comments far and wide. They tell a great story about Mr Berry and the Opposition generally. I can assure him that his comments about the V8 race will be published quite widely by this Government, particularly the parts of those comments relating to what he thinks about the dangers of the race and things of that kind.

Mr Quinlan made the point that the case for the race and the hospice is to be taken on blind faith. I think the Chief Minister very ably responded to that by saying that the only reason the Opposition is having to take anything on blind faith is that they did not have the courage to come forward in this place, as Mr Kaine did, for example, and ask questions about things they did not understand. Mr Quinlan was unable to explain what it was that he was in ignorance about as a result of not having an estimates committee process.

Mr Stanhope suggested that there was confusion about the numbers. The numbers of expected attendees he had from Mr James Service were different from those he had from the Government, but he was not prepared to elaborate on that issue. Of course, he did not approach the Government - me as the Treasurer, or the Chief Minister as the proponent of the race - to ask, "What are the expected attendance numbers for the first year of the event?".

It is quite tempting to draw the conclusion that the Opposition did not have any particularly difficult questions to ask in the process of an estimates committee but still wanted to have the opportunity to have an estimates committee process in order to run the usual circus surrounding that exercise. That is unfortunate, but it is what we have come to expect from this Opposition.

Mr Kaine's question has been answered by Mrs Carnell and I will not go over that information. I just repeat that the $4.5m is a net appropriation, and we expect that there will be some adjustment of that figure as we draw closer to the event. Naturally enough, at this early stage, without the event having been confirmed for the ACT, it is not possible to say whether or not the event will cost a particular amount, in terms of absolute bottom line final dollars, but we have estimated an amount in this Bill which we hope will be adequate to cover the cost, on a more conservative estimate. I expect that there will be an opportunity for the race to be promoted in a way which will attract important sponsorship.

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