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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 2 Hansard (21 February) . . Page.. 507 ..
MS DUNDAS (continuing):
Mr Pratt's motion provides no solutions. It will leave Canberra with a large, expensive, transport mess.
It is time to stop using transport policy as a political point-scoring exercise and start having a debate about the real issues.
MRS DUNNE (4.48): May I speak to both the motion and the amendment?
MR SPEAKER: Yes.
MRS DUNNE: Yesterday, Mr Speaker, I made some comments about the Minister for Planning's what I might call Stalinist approach to consultation. However, I have decided that, although I may sound a bit schizophrenic, not only is he a Stalinist but he now seems to model himself as a Thatcherite, because here we have it-no U-turn Simon.
The whole problem about this issue has been raised most cogently by Mr Pratt. It is a micro issue for people who live around the area but a substantial, big-picture issue for the whole of the ACT. The government will not recognise-it probably does recognise it but does not have the intestinal fortitude or backbone to admit it-that it has made a mistake here.
It takes guts to admit that you have made a mistake. It takes guts to say that perhaps you should go back and think again. That is what the government needs to do, because it has not taken into consideration the big-picture issues. Doesn't anyone on that side care about the big picture? The big picture impacts across the ACT. There are long-term economic impacts on the Bruce precinct and on the entirety of the ACT economy because of the contribution made by the Australian Institute of Sport.
The people here are surprised. Either they are surprised because they did not know about it-they are saying they did not know about it-or they are surprised because Mr Corbell has been trying to muzzle the AIS. They had the audacity, when put on the spot in Senate estimates, to speak the truth. You, yourself, admitted it. "We are doing all these back-room deals." Then, smugly, you said, "But of course we are consulting. You should have known we were consulting." You have not told anybody you are consulting. By your own admission, you are doing a back-room deal. What that back-room deal means is that you will continue to consult with the AIS until either they believe what you believe or they leave town. That is what happens all the time.
Mr Corbell: If only you knew the truth, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Mr Corbell continues this sham of openness and accountability and is, at the same time, making decisions, behind closed doors, that have long-term impacts on this community.
Ms Dundas made a point about the building of the eastern route of the Gungahlin Drive extension. She says, quite erroneously, that the eastern route will go straight through O'Connor Ridge. We know that this is not the case. The road that was proposed to go straight through O'Connor Ridge was deleted from the Territory Plan in November 2000. There is no road going straight through O'Connor Ridge. Ms Dundas is quite right in saying that this issue has been inquired into for 10 years. Inquiry after inquiry has
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