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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3368 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

In conclusion, I would like to say this: I am sure Mr Kaine's proposal today is well motivated. I know that Mr Kaine feels strongly on this issue. But I would have to say that the Federal Golf Club's presentation of a hotel/motel development could very easily be seen as simply a bluff to convince this Assembly to revisit residential development on the site. I do not think this Assembly should be bluffed.

MS CARNELL (Minister for Business, Tourism and the Arts) (11.55): Mr Speaker, I do not believe it is a bluff at all. I believe that if the Federal Golf Club is given no either choices there is no doubt that it will go down the path of a hotel/motel and convention centre. Interestingly, from a tourism perspective there is an identified gap in the market, and that is for a convention centre with accommodation attached in an area such as the Federal Golf Club area.

As we all know, many departments, federally and even in the ACT, regularly have what are colloquially called love-ins, or meetings where they want to get away for a period of time-a weekend or a night and a day-to look at future direction, policy, all sorts of things. There are actually very few places where you can do that outside of well used hotel venues in the ACT. So it actually has been identified as a project that has, in itself, real merit and potentially there would be very little trouble getting a private sector investment to build such a facility.

But if you are looking at a convention centre and hotel/motel facilities-and of course the other real benefit of a facility like that would be to use the golfing facilities as part of that whole approach-I am sure anybody could see that that has real opportunities. A convention centre produces a lot more cars than some units ever will. A convention centre and a hotel will produce significantly more activity on that site than units will ever produce.

I think that Mr Kaine's approach here is extremely sensible. It is something that should be supported. I do not believe that the Federal Golf Club is in any way putting up a proposal that it is not going to go ahead with. I believe it will. It is not its preferred position. It would prefer to go ahead with the proposal that is currently on the table. If it is given no other choice by this Assembly, I think that would be extraordinarily unfortunate for everybody involved.

It has a right to develop its land under the lease it currently has, and by taking the approach of knocking back Mr Kaine's position today we give it no choice but to pursue a proposal that will be significantly more disruptive than the one that is on the table at the moment. I believe that the Federal Golf Club has gone to every single length that it can to attempt to come up with something that is environmentally sensitive and that takes into account the concerns of the people in the area. I understand that it is willing to look at the issue of dams and so on, or outstanding issues.

If we take an approach that says, "You have no choice but a convention centre and hotel/motel complex," then it will be on our heads if it goes ahead, as it has every right to do, and produces something that is possibly less environmentally sound, more disruptive to the community in the area and, I have to say, less appropriate generally from a sustainability perspective for our city.

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