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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3942 ..

a bit like the Balfour declaration of 1917, which certainly went off the rails. But at least the Balfour declaration saw quite a few Jewish immigrants get to Palestine. Not much actually has happened since this current government’s bleatings in opposition that it was very supportive and would effectively, in the minds of the dragway people, regardless of what Mr Quinlan might say, go ahead and build a dragway.

Having won the election, they lost interest. By 2003 it was painfully obvious that there was very, very little interest indeed. I’ve asked the minister a number of questions in relation to this. He answered one on notice on 24 April 2003. I think it’s pretty indicative. He said that the government remained willing to assist the Canberra International Dragway with the purchase of a suitable site. He went on to say:

Mr Develin has also been advised through my letter to him and through correspondence from PALM that government assistance in purchasing a lease would also be dependent upon Mr Develin negotiating the transfer of the lease with any existing leaseholders and subject to a business plan that does not rely on government funding for construction or running costs for a new dragway.

In other words, we’ll help you get a site but we’re not going to do anything to help you construct a dragway or with the running costs. In other words, maybe we might give you a bit of assistance just in buying the land. Very, very different from what the dragway supporters and the motor supporters were led to believe. Around about that time I think there was a bit of angst from the local ALP government here in relation to a bumper sticker put out by the dragway community which basically said “No dragway 2003 equals no dragway 2004” and even complaints have been not properly authorised.

Back in October 2003, on 16 October, the opposition launched its policy and also made a number of other points about not having a dragway and why don’t we at least do something to help get the kids off the streets around Braddon, get them off doing drag-racing down at Hume as a temporary measure before a dragway’s built; using the police driver training track at Majura. Let the government at least do what it can to see if that can be used.

I think the attitude of the government is summed up pretty well by a letter to the Canberra Times on 17 November 2003 from a Tom Maddock who commends me for my efforts to establish a dragway and rid the Canberra streets of illegal street racing. He said:

Sadly, his efforts are completely contrasted by that of the Labor MLAs. Bill Wood seeks a formal approach, apparently before he is even prepared to think about the issue. And even then, he proposes nothing other than to suggest that an approach should be made from the Commonwealth Government.

On the one hand, we have the local Government complaining about excessive Commonwealth influence in the affairs of the ACT. Yet in this case, they appear to be happy to deflect what is obviously a local issue (rather than one of national significance) to the Feds.

Unfortunately Mr Wood’s response in this instance is typical of Labor’s attitude towards motor sport since it has been in office: deflect the issue, identify some impediments, regardless of whether they are valid or not, and hope that the issue will go away. Labor

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