Page 4636 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 15 December 1993
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As I say, I have put it forward in the interests of offering some choice. I accept that the Assembly will be voting on that, amongst any number of other issues to do with the electoral legislation. But to attempt to make out that I have not implemented the referendum decision is quite wrong. I have, and members who read through the legislation and the referendum options description sheet will see that that is the case. The referendum, as I have said before, is not exhaustive. It does not deal with how-to-vote cards, which we have heard Mr Moore deal with on any number of occasions. It does not deal with the filling of casual vacancies, I do not believe. There is a large range of issues which could be said to be additional to the referendum, and many of them are contained in our legislation.
I can let you into a secret and say that the banning of how-to-vote cards is not included in our legislation. I do not know whether Mr Moore wants to take issue with that. I think members are going to have to sit down with the legislation, deal with it in its entirety, and debate the issues - I hope that we will be able to discuss them between parties - but at the end of the day vote on them in this Assembly in what they see as the best interests of the community.
MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Chief Minister, in all the other above-the-line systems you have described in your answer, the votes are allocated and recorded in the order in which the names appear on the ballot-paper. Will your system be similar or identical to that?
MS FOLLETT: If Mr De Domenico is asking me whether I will ditch the Robson rotation, no, I have not, and I will not.
West Belconnen Trunk Sewer
MS SZUTY: My question without notice today is to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly, and I did give Mr Connolly notice today that I would be asking this question. ACT Electricity and Water have recently advertised, calling for written submissions in response to a preliminary assessment report on environmental factors in relation to the proposed construction of West Belconnen trunk sewer, stage 1. On further inquiry it has been ascertained that "a more detailed cultural resource survey and ecological survey" mentioned in the preliminary assessment are yet to be conducted. Tenders for the construction of West Belconnen trunk sewer, stage 1, are to be called in January 1994. Is the Minister confident that full and proper public consultation can occur prior to the construction of the West Belconnen trunk sewer, stage 1?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Ms Szuty for raising this with my office. I have been able to make inquiries to give a complete answer. I am confident that the proper consultation process has occurred. The final environmental impact statement for West Belconnen of August 1992, which was prepared by Dames and Moore Pty Ltd, investigated both cultural and ecological matters for the whole of the West Belconnen area. This included the project area for the proposed stage 1 West Belconnen trunk sewer. This report indicated minimal impact on the cultural and ecological resources of the project area. A further preliminary cultural survey of the area by a group called South East Archaeology in December 1992 also found no Aboriginal historical sites in the vicinity of the project area.
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