Page 2604 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 1991
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MR STEFANIAK: He has had about four in a row. In the area currently being developed as Gungahlin there are several homesteads, some of which date back about 150 years. I understand that long-term residents of those homesteads wish to be given the same privileges as long-term tenants of suburban government houses and have made offers to the department to purchase those homes and have them incorporated into suburban development. Bearing in mind the ACT's difficult financial situation and the relative lack of historical buildings in the Territory, have these offers of contribution to ACT revenue been accepted and will the still structurally sound homesteads be preserved?
MR WOOD: We are not in the business of knocking down sound and historically valuable homesteads, so in general terms I can say that those homesteads and those people will be protected. You may have in mind the Gungahlin homestead, which is not an historic homestead in some respects. It is a comparatively recent building. Certainly, we will have the care of those older structures well in mind. I do not know whether there is some other agenda, whether the proponents want some special consideration or not; but initially you will get a sympathetic hearing from me.
It is my understanding that some of these matters are also under inquiry by the Conservation, Heritage and Environment Committee, which is, perhaps, properly where these things ought to stay at the moment. I will be happy to make my contribution when I have the committee's report in front of me.
X-Rated Video Industry
MR STEVENSON: My question is to the Chief Minister. Has the Chief Minister read the statements I made in this Assembly on 16 and 30 April 1991 and the documents I tabled on organised crime involvement in the X-rated video industry? If so, perhaps I can then ask a supplementary question about that evidence.
MS FOLLETT: I am a little nervous in answering, for fear of what sort of detail Mr Stevenson might wish to go into. I recall reading in general terms his statements of 16 and 30 April 1991, as indeed, I guess, have all members of the Assembly. At the time and since then I thought that they were extraordinarily thin documents. I thought that, in his usual fashion, Mr Stevenson had sought, by slur and innuendo, to make links between organised crime and various groups in the community. Those slurs and innuendos have consistently failed to be supported by any real evidence.
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