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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 154 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

on our economy, on our reputation as a host of international events, on our role in the centenary of Federation celebrations and on the perception of Canberra as the national capital of Australia. The local business community's strength of feeling is only too apparent in this submission.

The ACT Legislative Assembly must, of course, pay serious attention to this strength of feeling and the ACT Government has a role in taking whatever steps it can to ensure something like this does not happen again. Mr Speaker, that is the fundamentally important part of this process. Regretting what has occurred and condemning the responsible parties is one matter. Some may revel in that process, even excessively. I have to say that I regret some of the language which has been used today. It is not language designed to persuade the Federal Government towards a different approach towards the city of Canberra.

One thing we can and should do is take on board any potential reasons that Canberra might have been overlooked for hosting a major meeting like this one and work to ensure that in future those reasons cannot, with any credibility, be advanced by anybody. The Chief Minister's amendment to the motion of Mr Stanhope deals with that issue. It deals with the upgrading of the Canberra Airport to accommodate a wider range of aircraft, it deals with supporting the development of a strategy to enhance Canberra's accommodation and convention facilities and it deals with the submissions themselves, which have argued for a different approach, in future at least, to the hosting of these sorts of events by Canberra.

One positive outcome of this experience is that the local business sector has united to put forward the submission that the Chief Minister's amendment refers to. The ACT Government is pleased to see this outcome because this cooperative approach gives the Government a united voice to talk to, and that is a very important development. As the Chief Minister has explained, there are three basic issues for Canberra: The quality of hotel accommodation available, the space available at the National Convention Centre and the proximity of a retreat venue with five-star resort facilities.

Regardless of whether we accept the Federal Government's grounds for relocating CHOGM to Brisbane, it is apparent that the Federal Government has not taken steps to mitigate the impact on Canberra, and that also remains a matter of concern. The Chief Minister's amendment to Mr Stanhope's motion seeks to address the impacts of the late announcement of the change to the venue for CHOGM. As the Chief Minister has pointed out, we want to go further than this and take a proactive approach to looking at the issues. We want to address key areas where steps can be taken towards ensuring that this situation will not arise again.

As we all know, Canberra already offers a number of advantages for the hosting of major international gatherings. But, as the Chief Minister has said, there are two key areas which would make a significant contribution. These are upgrading the runway at Canberra Airport to allow a wider range of aircraft to fly directly to Canberra and enhancing conference facilities here. I hope, in particular, that the effect of the amendment being passed today will be that the Federal Government will indicate its support for Canberra's capacity to host meetings to be enhanced in this way.

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