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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 3290 ..


MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

We are talking about discussions with people who might own or lease land in the Majura area. I do not know how many crowds of 700 people you have addressed, but I have only ever done it once. The area I thought of, whilst addressing that crowd, was everything on the left-hand side of Pialligo Avenue, as you head from Civic to Queanbeyan. I have indicated that on a number of occasions-almost ad nauseam. Mr Smyth-the serial hair-splitter that he is-will say, "Well, one bit is Majura and the other bit is Pialligo."

Mr Smyth: That is not what the meeting heard.

MR HARGREAVES: You win, Mr Smyth! It is not Easter, but get your hammer, nails and wood and do me over a bit, on the map and name.

Mr Smyth: So the Chronicle got it wrong, too?

MR HARGREAVES: The Chronicle is absolutely incorrect. You perpetrated that porky in it yourself, and you stand condemned for that.

Mr Smyth: He has the tape-he said he has the tape.

MR HARGREAVES: Give it a break!

MR SPEAKER: Members of the opposition will come to order.

MR HARGREAVES: What I said was that there were conversations going on with people out there who own land, or are leasing land-that is true. Mr Smyth goes out and selectively talks to a couple of leaseholders. He asks, "Did they chat to you?"-and they say, "No."That is probably true, too.

What I would like to know, Mr Smyth, is who else did you speak to out there? For example, did you speak to the leaseholder at the airport about the drag strip that you personally, through your inaction, killed off? It was you personally, because you did nothing.

In fact, the only person the dragway people have any time for, in my understanding, is Mr Stefaniak, who unfortunately got rolled in cabinet-by whom, Mr Smyth? By you! It was by you-because you did nothing. You stood by and watched Rome burn! You stood by and let it happen. You could have given them a five-year lease, but you did not do it. You just plain did not do it-and you do not have the guts to tell the people of the ACT you did not do it!

Mr Smyth: Talk to the Supreme Court and the Federal Court.

MR HARGREAVES: Have you spoken to the other leaseholders, for example, in what I now know to be Pialligo on the Queanbeyan side of the airport? Have you spoken to that illustrious landlord, Wilson Tuckey-or to Senator Abetz-or whichever monster on the hill is responsible for that? Have you spoken to them? You are too gutless to stand up in this place and say you are backing the people out there to stop the dragway from being built. You are gutless, sometimes, Mr Smyth. You will not get out there and tell the truth. You figure, "I will build up a straw man-I will crucify John Hargreaves-and that will


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