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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3947 ..

us—not just, “I’ll do it; it will all be fixed; Majura is a good place,” because Majura is a good place—

Mr Stefaniak: Where there’s a will there’s a way.

MR QUINLAN: Well, there wasn’t last time you were around, Bill. As I said, your contribution last time was $70,000, I think, of taxpayers’ money to fob off the dragway push after you’d been involved with them in the fiasco of their previous lease.

MR SPEAKER: Ms Dundas was a bit disappointed that she didn’t get the call last time, but I could see that Mr Quinlan had the idea; it was just taking him a bit longer to get to his feet.

MS DUNDAS (4.12): I’m always quite happy to hear from the older members of this place. I respect that it does take longer for some members to get to their feet, considering they’re old and have sporting injuries.

MR SPEAKER: Your turn will come.

MS DUNDAS: But I would like to take this opportunity in this matter of public importance to once again put on the record quite clearly that the ACT Democrats remain supportive of building of a multi-purpose motor sport facility and that it should be prioritised for the next government, as it should have been for this one and the last one.

Canberra has not had a motor sport facility since the Tralee raceway closed and it’s the only city of its size that does not have a motor sport facility. A number of social problems have, I think, got worse over the last number of years because we do not have such a facility in the ACT.

Because of the limited scope of entertainment activities currently available to Canberrans, we continue to have motor sport enthusiasts sometimes congregating in and around Canberra, causing neighbourhoods around them to claim that they are a nuisance. They are doing burnouts and creating traffic hazards.

So a motor sport facility could give Canberrans another entertainment option as well as bringing tourism and economic development to the ACT. Much of the economic white paper the government is so committed to is dependent on a diversification of employment in the territory and I think that a project such as a motor sport facility would help this much-needed diversification.

We’ve seen recently reports of a police crackdown on illegal street racing. I’m completely confident that, if we actually had a motor sport facility, then these people who are currently being targeted for their illegal activities would have somewhere to go and participate in their sport. Legally they would have a safe place at which to undertake their sport.

I think all we’ve seen is a lot of posturing and a budget allocation but that’s rather hollow when we can see no action being taken to find a suitable site. The Deputy Chief Minister has just spoken at length about the problems that are being faced in relation to a site, its type and class, who is going to own it, who is going to operate it—all these questions

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