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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2622 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

credence to what the legal experts and the planners actually say. They are experts and they do have a lot of expertise.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please! Before I call Mr Berry, I would like to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of students from the CIT who are undertaking a year 12 course. Welcome to your Assembly.

MR BERRY (11.49): Mr Speaker, I move the following amendment to Ms Tucker's proposed amendment No 2:

Labor will be opposing the first amendment proposed by Ms Tucker. I will deal with those amendments first.

As you would expect, Ms Tucker has been consistent on this issue. If she were to agree to any motion which recognised anything beneficial about drag-racing, her supporters would eat her alive. It is fair to say that drag-racing is not an environmentally friendly sport. In a perfect world in which we were all conducting environmentally friendly activities, drag-racing would not be there. But it does have significant economic and social benefits, as has been described by my colleague Mr Corbell, not the least of which is the economic benefits which have been denied the territory by the inaction of the Carnell government.

If there were a sport called duck shoving, this government would be well out in front through trying to dodge responsibility for this issue. If this government had been as sympathetic to the needs of the drag-racing community in the ACT as they have been to their friends at the Canberra International Airport, then I can assure you that there would be drag-racing happening now either at that site or somewhere else. Those are the facts of the matter.

If you had been as sympathetic to the punters who are using the drag-racing strip as you have been to your mates out at the Canberra International Airport, people would be buzzing up and down a one-quarter of a mile course either where it is today or where it might have been, subject to your sympathies. The trouble is that you did not have sympathy for this issue; you had more sympathy for your mates. If there were a drag-racing strip for duck shoving, you would be way out in front.

You have demonstrated that you were not sympathetic to the needs of the people who wanted to operate this facility. It is a facility, incidentally, that has not cost the government a cent. It has been built out there by ordinary punters who want to race their red-hot motor cars. There has been no provision of $7 million for a V8 car race out there. The races were returning money to the territory without the government putting any money into them. In fact, the organisers did not want any help from the government, because they knew that they would have obligations to the lot opposite once they took the money.

Mr Stefaniak: They have had some financial assistance, Wayne, but not a huge amount. I cannot remember the figure.

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