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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (30 March) . . Page.. 1176 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

quite large. The outlay is a very small amount of money for a huge strategic opportunity to create the base for a new industry and new business opportunities. I invite the Assembly to note the significance of this very important initiative.

I think it is appropriate for me to make a couple of comments about why we believed it was important to bring this motion to the Assembly. We believe very strongly that on an issue of this importance with the sorts of timeframes involved it is essential that members of this Assembly have an opportunity to state on the record their beliefs about this proposal and to support or not support this approach. This is by far the biggest business incentive project that we have entered into. It is certainly the biggest in dollar terms. As we have a minority government and as the cash component of $8m was not in the draft budget, we believed that it was appropriate to bring this issue to the Assembly. That does not mean that the Government in any way backs away from its Executive responsibility to make these decisions on behalf of the people of Canberra who, let us be fair, elected it. But we do believe that it is appropriate for every member of the Assembly, if they choose, to have their say.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.46): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are several drivers for this proposal. The first is the Government's desire to bring industry and employment to the Territory. That is, quite obviously, a creditable and worthwhile reason. According to my briefing from departmental officers, since the privatisation of the airport the Government has been working to encourage businesses to establish there. It is appropriate that it does that. The hope is to develop Canberra as a regional transport hub, a policy also fully supported and advocated by the Labor Party. I have often commented of my support of Terry Snow and the Capital Airport Group and their vision for the Canberra Airport.

The second driver - one that has been little remarked on publicly - is, of course, Impulse Airlines' plan to join the big league. They intend to compete against Qantas and Ansett and in time Virgin on the Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane routes. They have leased planes and made substantial commitments to this goal, but before they can get the approval of the Federal authorities they need to have arrangements in place to give them the heavy engineering facilities which they will need to service their new fleet. This proposal would meet that need.

It seems that we have a marriage, a good marriage, of interests. It is probably fair to say that in a deal such as this one the Territory is unable to compete in an all-out bidding war with the other and larger States. The commercial and regulatory imperatives on Impulse may, in fact, have worked to the advantage of the ACT on this occasion. Our public servants have done their job and, at face value, they have done it well. They have identified the opportunities for growth and they have gone looking for other parties who might be interested in those opportunities. They have done their job and they have brought the parties together.

One of the questions now, and there are a number of questions, is whether the Government should go further. Should it be involved financially? Should it spend taxpayers' money on the proposal and what are the risks of such expenditure? If the Government is to be involved financially, how much should it contribute and in what form? Should governments be involved in picking winners? If that is to be the case,

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