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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2596 ..

Mr Humphries: Support the amendments then, Wayne. Support the amendments in that case.

MR BERRY: No, I will not be supporting the amendments.

Mr Humphries: You are speaking in favour of them.

MR BERRY: I will not be supporting the amendments because I think the Government has made the decision that it is going to happen and the numbers are there anyway. They have made their decision, for other reasons, that this race has to go ahead, and we will be supporting it. Mr Speaker, I think the Government is rubbery on this. It needs to be very nervous about its position. I want to make it clear from the Labor Party's point of view that we are going to keep the microscope on the Government in relation to this matter. If it does not come off, the Government will be in deep trouble. They say that these things will happen, but I would have to say, on the evidence that has been given to us, that the outcomes they have predicted are more than a little bit rubbery. I hope they are true.

MS TUCKER (12.13): I will speak again as I need to respond to Mr Humphries' little story about establishing whether or not a person was for sale. I have not said that I would support a bike race or a solar race, so I make that clear. Mr Humphries did not appear to listen to part of my argument. Apart from the issue of dignity in the Parliamentary Triangle, I spoke about concerns about the symbolic nature of the event. Obviously, a solar car race or a bike race would have a different symbolic significance for the new millennium and in the heart of the nation. That is an issue for discussion. There is a very different significance around those sorts of technologies, obviously.

I was concerned about the cost. I think it would be a very extraordinary bike race that would cost $7m and expenditure every year to the degree that the car race would, but maybe Mr Humphries' government could find a bike race that cost that much, so cost would still be an issue if that were the case. On the issue of dignity and respect or the value of the Parliamentary Triangle, that genuinely would be something that would have to be taken into account. I know that people do have a strong sense of the place of the national capital. It is a legitimate question that we would be interested in discussing with communities. I want to make it quite clear that we have not said either way what we would think about that particular idea from Mr Humphries.

Question put:

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