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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3943 ..

should be reminded that the issue has not gone away. Mr Wood seems to take offence at that, but all it is—and I think this bloke who wrote the letter is right—is typical of Labor’s attitude towards motor sport since it’s been in office, and that has been to deflect the issue; it has been to identify some impediments, regardless of whether they’re valid, and hope the issue will go away. Labor should be reminded the issue hasn’t gone away, nor will it.

Mr Speaker, let’s now look at the actual issue of the Majura sites. The Majura sites were due actually to be renewed on 31 December 2005. If this government had been serious about helping the dragway, they could have actually not renewed the ideal sites and purchased them for the dragway. Oh, no, what’s happened? We find out that actually there are no impediments from the Commonwealth in regard to block 51. That lease was renewed for a further 20 years, I think it was, in April 2003. We found that out in estimates. That lease expired on 31 December 2005. If this government was fair dinkum about building a dragway, all they’d have to do is say, “We’re not going to renew the lease,” pay out reasonable and just compensation for the improvements made and then go ahead and allow the dragway to be built there.

But what did it do? It renewed the lease in April 2003, over 18 months before it actually needed to. It was around about, interestingly enough, the same time as Mr Quinlan sent that response to my question on notice about the amount of support the government was prepared to give the dragway. If the government says, “Oh, well, they have to renew the lease now; there’s a 20-year lease; tut, tut, we can’t do anything there,” I’d check what Mr Corbell actually said to the Estimates Committee in terms of the conditions of the lease.

Even though you have now renewed the lease, which makes it a little bit harder—it’ll cost us more money in terms of getting any of these sites—any leases can be resumed for a public purpose. A public purpose—and even Mr Corbell, I think, conceded this in estimates—would indeed include a dragway, as long as the ACT government still basically owned the land. So there’s nothing to stop you doing that, although you have probably put an added impost on the ACT community by your actions in renewing these leases, which you didn’t have to. And that’s just going to cause more inconvenience to more people concerned.

I’m very concerned the government has put in $8 million—$4 million in 2004-05, $4 million in 2005-06. Funnily enough, that is exactly the same as the opposition put in its policy, in its budget. But we’re getting close to the caretaker period. We’re getting awfully close to that period and we still see no action. I’m afraid that we are going to see no action. They’ll make every excuse they can, suggest all these impediments, real and imagined; it’s going to be too hard; we’ll be in the caretaker period; and nothing will happen.

I have mentioned these young champions that have been produced. I would hate to see motor sport not supported by either major party in this Assembly. I am very concerned to see the lack of action by this government, the excuses that have been put up and the backing away from a very clear support they gave the motor sport community, especially the dragway community, before the last election.

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