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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (13 March) . . Page.. 1038 ..
MR STANHOPE
: It is a speech which many have mentioned and a speech which, I hope, many of you will listen to. You will have twin opportunities-tomorrow on ArtsSound FM and on 666, our favourite radio station, at one o'clock on Monday. Double up; listen to it twice. Record it. Enter it into your bedside alarms and awaken to it of a morning. Put it on your telephone answering machines for the people you put on hold.It is a wonderful speech which raises some ideas and some issues for discussion, one being around the role of Canberra as the home of the 322,000 people who currently live here, a serious and significant issue. It is an issue that Ms Tucker raised of Mr Corbell. There is an issue here for us, the people of Canberra, the people who call this place home, the people who have come here, who were born here, who live here, who will stay here and who give their body and soul for this community. It is an issue that is worthy of serious discussion. It is an issue that does not deserve to be trivialised.
Ms Dunne
: I rise to a point of order, Mr Speaker. I still have not heard any mention of Lake Ginninderra and coffee and another two minutes have gone by-41/2 minutes of non-coffee and non-Ginninderra. Standing order 118A says that answers should be concise and to the point. The point is coffee by Lake Ginninderra and an answer of 41/2 minutes is not concise.MR SPEAKER
: I am sure that the Chief Minister is not going to repeat the whole speech.MR STANHOPE
: Do not tempt me, Mr Speaker. I think that this is a serious issue and a matter for serious discussion. I do not wish to diminish that. I think that this is a serious issue. It is an issue around the heart and soul of Canberra and it really is derisory of Mrs Dunne to suggest that we are, as a community, connected with our lakes. We have not. There is a disconnection and a visit to any other major city in Australia or, indeed, in the world will put the lie to the extent to which communities in their planning and in their living successfully connect with water. We have not done it in the ACT. One of the things we have not achieved in our planning, in the way we have structured and constructed this city and in the way we interact with our environment, is a connection with the water, with the lakes. Go to any other city in Australia with a major lake, a bay, a harbour or a river.Ms Dunne
: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order under 118A. I have asked a question in relation to what is stopping this government from doing something about having these sorts of facilities on Lake Ginninderra. Another minute has gone by, the minister is 51/2 minutes into this answer and he has not yet mentioned why his government has not done anything about Lake Ginninderra and these facilities.MR SPEAKER
: Come to the point, Chief Minister.MR STANHOPE
: I will. Actually, I will conclude my answer, Mr Speaker. I think that this is a serious subject. It is a subject that I would be very happy to seriously debate. I deliberately and quite consciously raised the matter yesterday in a speech which, irrespective of what you think of it, was a significant speech. I raised the matter advisedly to stimulate and excite some public discussion around our relationship as
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