Page 2819 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 September 1994
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I am delighted that Mr Moore has said that he is not prepared to make any comments now, but will wait and see what is the outcome of that inquiry. However, I will bet pounds to peanuts that, notwithstanding what Mr Lansdown or anybody else that Mr Wood might have picked will say, we will get complaints from the same people who did very little in terms of the public consultations that went on when Mr Lamont was chairing the committee which looked into the Territory Plan. After it was all signed, sealed and delivered, we got more complaints than we did throughout the long process of public inquiry. It is very easy for those people, who stand up and complain and whinge and moan, to talk about things in hindsight. If we all had the benefit of hindsight, we would be delighted.
The other thing that members of this Assembly should be prepared to do is to admit it if we have made any mistakes in the past, in terms of what we may or may not have done, in terms of the Territory Plan or other things that we have looked at. I, for one, and members on this side of the house, I know - and perhaps members on the other side of the house - will be prepared to say, "Okay; we got it wrong". That is not a big deal. It makes us human. But it must be shown where we have got it wrong, because I, for one, am not going to accept excuses such as those mentioned before. I am aware of certain developers who are quite happy to go ahead and develop willy-nilly, with thoughts only of what might be good for their pockets, but for whom, when similar developments are proposed in the area in which they themselves live, it is a different story.
Mr Acting Speaker, I recall the remark made to you quite publicly by the Master Builders Association. I think the question was, "Whom do the Liberals think they are representing?". I thought your answer was quite good. I think that all 17 members of this Assembly, or 16 at least - I do not cast aspersions on anybody - would respond by saying, "We happen to represent the community". Mr Wood, especially - the self-styled "Member for Brindabella" - would realise that there are even some people in that electorate who are very scared about the perception of what may happen with this dual occupancy, urban infill situation.
Finally, Mr Acting Speaker, let me say that there will be some times when this Minister and this Assembly will have to make up their minds and make a decision. As hard as that might be from time to time, people have to realise that, whenever decisions are made, not everybody is going to be happy. But I still say that it is better to make a decision than to procrastinate. That leads me to the MPI before us. We are six months away from an election and - let us be honest with ourselves - political parties do conduct surveys. All of us, on both sides of the house, know that this subject of urban infill will appear in every political survey that asks, "What is the community concerned about?". Is it not ironic, and very timely, that only when we are so close to an election does the Government realise that perhaps it needs to do something about it? It has been told time and again that it needs to do something about it. I am suggesting that, when tough decisions need to be made, we should let them be made, and it might be surprising to find who supports them, if the decisions are the right decisions.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: The discussion is concluded.
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