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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4555 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

It is scaremongering in the extreme to suggest that, and the Minister knows it. They were always going to be outside the Government's regulation. They were always going to need to seek an environmental authorisation. I think the Minister's suggestion was deliberately misleading and created a lot of angst and heartache in a lot of members of the community. That was quite unnecessary, except to serve your own political ends. I think that is very unjust.

The Labor Party's proposition is a straightforward one: Treat motor sport activity at Fairbairn Park in the same way as you treat motor sport activity in the rest of the Territory. Require motor sport activity to get an environmental authorisation, require the Environment Management Authority to set terms and conditions on noise - when it can occur, how often it can occur, at what times it should occur - and if people are unhappy with authorisations being granted or not being granted, have an appeal process that they can go through based on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Under our proposal, if residents or motor sport organisations feel they are affected, they can go to the AAT. That is a sensible compromise, Mr Speaker, and I hope that the Assembly sees fit to support it.

MR OSBORNE (11.48): I will not be supporting Mr Corbell's amendment. The reality is that the Labor Party does not want to make a decision, as we saw yesterday with the 50 kilometres an hour zone in the streets. I have heard both sides of the argument about the noise levels at Fairbairn Park and have decided to vote with the Government. I am doing this to ensure that people who enjoy motor sport in the Territory can continue to do so.

The Fairbairn track was in place a long time before the New South Wales residents of the Ridgeway moved into their plush mansions. I am fully aware that the noise which occasionally wafts up the hill from the racetrack disturbs the ambience of some Ridgeway garden parties, but they should have thought about that before they moved in. I sometimes wish that I had the courage of a Trevor Kaine or a Roberta McRae when it comes to telling the residents of Queanbeyan where to get off, but it is not all the residents of Queanbeyan or even all the residents of the Ridgeway who have kicked up a stink about this. I have had phone calls from Queanbeyan residents who use the track, begging me to support the Government's proposed noise regulation.

This issue is being run by a select and privileged few who do not want to be within earshot of the "grubby working class yobs" who like to drive fast cars. But, even so, I quiver at saying nasty things about even a handful of people, lest I be misunderstood and ordinary people in Queanbeyan think I am having a shot at them. This is not so. I firmly believe that our future lies in thinking regionally and I look forward to ever closer ties between our two cities.

However, if I did have the courage of a Kaine or a McRae, I might say something like this: "I think it is completely unacceptable that a handful of namby-pamby NIMBY silvertails be allowed to dictate to the hundreds of people from both Canberra and Queanbeyan who enjoy the racetrack". Or I might say this: "Why should I give a rat's ... what the people of the Ridgeway think? The people of the Ridgeway live 35 minutes from the nearest people who can vote for me". But, Mr Speaker, I try to avoid that kind of inflammatory talk, unlike Mr Kaine and Ms McRae.

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