Page 1341 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 10 May 1994
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Canberra Airport
MR WESTENDE: My question is addressed to the Chief Minister. Could the Chief Minister please advise the Assembly why it was necessary for officers of her Economic Development Division to withdraw at the last minute from appearing at the public hearing on the airport inquiry held on 27 April? My second question is: When does the Chief Minister expect the Economic Development Division's submission to be available to the tourism committee, and will the Chief Minister give an undertaking that the Economic Development Division officers' submission will be available prior to the next public hearing scheduled for 24 May 1994?
MS FOLLETT: I want to make it quite clear, Madam Speaker, that the submission that will be going to Mr Westende's committee will be a Government submission, not a submission from the Economic Development Division. Before the Government is in a position to put forward that submission, we have to consider it. I regret that our consideration has been slightly delayed, but it is only a slight delay. I expect to have that submission finalised very shortly. As I said, the submission will be informed by the study that we had done by consultants into the question of an international airport for Canberra, and I intend to put that information to my colleagues so that what we put to the Assembly's committee is a Government view.
As I said in answer to the question by Mr Stevenson, I think that recent events, most notably the Commonwealth's proposed sale of the airport, could change our consideration of the future of Canberra Airport. I expect that Mr Westende's committee will also want to take that into account. It is a not insignificant issue. Madam Speaker, I can certainly undertake to Mr Westende to move with all haste to get the submission to him and also to agree to the presence of Economic Development Division officers to brief the committee further and, of course, also to support our written submission.
MR WESTENDE: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Would it surprise the Chief Minister to hear that one of the airlines purports to know the contents of the report that was not submitted to the parliamentary inquiry?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, the question is whether I would be surprised. Madam Speaker, I am forever being told things or seeing things reported which may or may not be factual. If that view has been put to the committee by one of the airlines, there is no comment I can make on it. It may or may not be an accurate reflection of the state of their information, or it may be just an assumption on their part. It may, in fact, bear no relation whatsoever to the truth. I just cannot say.
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