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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3464 ..

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, and thank you, members. The reason I want to speak for a short while is that I want to make it clear on the record that I do not feel that the consultation process has been a good one. The reason for the amendment is that there has been a consultation process. Quite a significant amount of money has been spent. I think we have the opportunity to convert the consultation process into a reasonable one. Even a round table meeting of the type I am suggesting does not necessarily mean the end of the process at all, and I am not suggesting that it is the end of the process. I wanted that to be clearly on the record.

I have spoken to Mr Smyth. I think it is important to remember that there is also another public meeting prior to this where the consultants will put some options. They already have put some options. I understand they will be putting more options than that, and I hope so. I wanted to make it clear that that was the case.

Ms Tucker was quite right. The people we spoke to this morning in the senior positions within the residents associations, and that is who we tend to speak to because they are the elected representatives, certainly were under pressure today, and I do not miss that. I appreciate the support from those members who have indicated they support my amendment. I still think it is the best way to go-to continue the consultation process and try to make the best of what we have got and see if we can then get the outcome. I think the government is getting the message.

MS TUCKER: May I seek leave to speak very quickly again on that?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Why don't you speak on the adjournment when the time comes?

Mr Moore: No, she can speak now. Close the debate.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Moore! Are you seeking leave, Ms Tucker?

MS TUCKER: Yes.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: Thank you. I just wanted to respond to something Mr Moore said then that was something I did not mention before. The community meeting is on 7 December. There was an immediate reaction to that from the meeting as well; that it was a very difficult time. It is two days before school break-up. They felt that that was not a good time. They actually wanted the process to go longer. If it was going to go, they wanted more options. They wanted a blank page, and they wanted to rework the whole thing. I think even that assumption that the meeting of the 7th is okay is not true. It is not actually borne out when you look at the reaction to that announcement at that public meeting.

The other thing I think I should say to be fair is that when I spoke to the representative of the Yarralumla Residents Association there was a suggestion that we could adjourn this until next week so that they could talk to their residents association. That was one suggestion. Other people that I spoke to from Yarralumla did not want that to happen

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