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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2624 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

I want to see the building of another motor sport facility which does not impact on the community. I want to see it built away from the community so that it will not cause any disquiet. Motor racing is noisy by its nature but it is also regulated by its own set of rules to limit noise impacts. We must adhere to the Environment Protection Act in the ACT. Whilst I support Ms Tucker's sentiments in relation to noise impacts, we are never going to get rid of all of them; but one expects that people should be protected by the Environment Protection Act in the same way as anybody else is protected.

I do not endorse the minister's comments about our Queanbeyan friends. They are as entitled to protection from environmental hazards as anybody else. To slam them here merely because they are not voters is a little rough and unnecessary. At the end of the day, a motor sport facility will have to be found in the ACT to provide for this outlet, if you like, for ordinary punters in the community, otherwise we will be faced with the problems of street racing and those sorts of things that other communities have faced in the past.

I think that is something the government should have thought about before they were so quick to hand out $7 million, $11 million or whatever the total will be for the V8 supercar race. If you had talked to the motor sport people in the ACT and given them the choice, I know what most of them would have done. They would have taken the money and had a facility of their own away from the community so that they can participate in their sport.

The people who participate in this activity as a form of recreation are not big business men and women. They are the ordinary punters out there who like to go fast. We live in a racy world and we have to accept that that is an ordinary part of life in the community. We worship the motor car, some of us more than others. Ms Tucker has indicated that she does not like them as much as some others in this place. Whilst I may have been a wannabe, I would never have gotten around to drag-racing. My motor cars would not be much good in that sort of event these days; you would beat them in a good pair of sandshoes.

The issue here is where the government's sympathies lie. What we are trying to do is to highlight here the need for the government to have some sympathy for this sport which makes a contribution to our community. It does not suit everybody, but it suits lots of people out there. It brings business to the ACT and creates jobs. The wishes of all those people who build engines, race cars and provide accommodation for people who visit the place ought to be respected.

It is about time the government at least matched the sympathy that it has given to the Canberra International Airport and provided a venue for these people. It should enter into negotiations with these people and show good sense in dealing with the issue, rather than having the Mexican stand-off that has been created and endorsed mostly by the government. (Extension of time granted)

On the issue of the leasing of a venue by dragway organisers being at full market value, there have to be negotiations with the ACT government now that they apparently have some newly found sympathies. I do not want to predict what the outcome would be. It would be wrong of me to try to do that in a dollar sense from this side of the chamber, but the negotiations would have to take into account the investment and commitment that

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