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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3954 ..

Over a period of months we have had to endure some silly and selfish individuals using our streets to do “burnouts” usually late at night or in the early morning hours. This is usually along the section of Louisa Lawson Crescent up the hill past our intersection (Willoughby Crescent) and towards the other side of Gilmore. In addition residents have had letterboxes destroyed and even plants removed from gardens. The reserve between us and the Rose Cottage continues to be a dumping ground for cars and other rubbish as the gate from Isabella Drive is often left unlocked. That has been the subject of phone calls but we have given up reporting the dumped cars.

He then goes on to talk about the incident that really annoyed him. The final paragraph says:

We have found that reporting incidents to the Police gets us nowhere and we’ve given up trying. We look to continue to have a problem with louts disturbing our neighbourhood because of the undermanned Police Service. I am aware that an election is coming up in the next few months and regardless of who wins, I am not confident anything will be done. However with the slightest degree of hope, we would appreciate it if the Police Patrol might care to come up around our end of Gilmore in the early morning hours at the weekends, in the hope that the disturbance of our amenity might be reduced.

Sincerely

It is signed by the constituent. Mr Minister for police, you might like to take on board that there are a lot of burnouts and racing being done on Louisa Lawson Crescent. As Mr Pratt has pointed out, it’s the sense of exasperation and the lack of consideration that these young people—

Mr Wood: What’s that got to do with the dragway?

MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Smyth has the floor; he’s struggling to get through here.

MR SMYTH: Thank you for your attention, Mr Speaker. Mr Wood interjects, “What’s this got to do with drag racing?” This is the point: it’s the sense of exasperation and frustration out there in the community that, three years after promises were given that the Labor Party would build a dragway if they were elected to government, nothing has happened. This is why we’re finding events like this occurring on Anzac Parade in the early hours of the morning, at Hume in the early hours of the morning and in the suburb of Gilmore in the early hours of the morning.

We’ve got a police minister who just sits there going, “Well, what’s this got to do with drag racing?” Well, it’s got a lot to do with drag racing because what people are saying is that they’ve got nowhere else to do it; they’re willing to go out in the earliest hours of the morning and have their drags on suburban streets. They shouldn’t be doing it. They shouldn’t be doing it because we should have had a dragway facility by now.

Mr Speaker there is clearly a need for a motor sport facility of this type. The area where it should go has been identified by a number of reports. All it needs is a government with the will to build it, to go ahead and honour the commitments that have been made.

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