Page 661 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 28 March 2006
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MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra) (11.33): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name which inserts a new clause 33A [see schedule 2 at page 724].
Whilst the amendments of the Chief Minister, which were alluded to by the then sports minister in the last sitting, improve the bill, my amendment will give application to the intent of the actual drafters of the bill and the intention of how the regime is to work. I said in my opening comments on this bill that one pleasing aspect of it is that it might indicate the government is fair dinkum about building a dragway, because this bill would have application to a new facility, which is very much in line with what occurs in New South Wales.
But there have been concerns expressed in the motor sport community about existing facilities. In talking with officials, the motor sport community, the government and the former minister, it seemed quite clear that this particular act is not really meant to apply to any existing facilities. Obviously, if existing facilities suddenly want to make a dramatic change, that might well be a different story. It is not intended, so I have been assured, that this bill would apply to the existing facilities. They are the facilities that are operating at Fairbairn Park. Hence my amendment makes that absolutely certain and puts it in legislation.
As I said, things could change down the track. There could be further amendments; further things could flow, if any existing facility wanted to make a significant change to how it operates at present. My particular amendment indicates that the act does not apply to the four facilities that operate at Fairbairn Park. That facility has at present all four types of racing in the territory. There are no other current racing tracks in the territory.
The current facilities are: the speedway racing track, the go-kart racing track, the motorcycle racing track and the hill-climb racing track. The speedway racing track is a little further removed within the complex from the others. Some of those facilitates are at block 306. The other, I think, is at block 601. That effectively covers the four existing facilities, which I have been advised it is not—and I certainly accept that it is not—the intention of this bill to cover.
My amendment would greatly assist the operation of this bill. It would certainly alleviate any fears of the current motor sport community that they might be unduly hit with extra unnecessary bureaucracy. Of course, if accepted, it would certainly do nothing to take away from the rest of the bill which is there to properly govern any new major motor sport facilities that the territory hopefully will be getting in due course.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.36): Mr Stefaniak’s amendment makes it very clear that this bill is a dragway bill. While I am not an expert on motor racing in any shape or form, I am inclined to support his amendment. But in doing so, I make a few comments on the bill as such. Mr Stanhope noted that my office had some input to the amendments that we have all approved today. I make some points that were made by my office to the officer who briefed us on this bill and who was very appreciative of our comments. I note that most of these are not reflected in the amendments.
In clause 13, the penalty provision of 20 penalty units is not, in our opinion, high enough to be a realistic deterrent because it only represents a profit from maybe 40 tickets to
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