ACT Dragway - the saga continues (copy of media press release)

[rag top]

Got this earlier today - ACT Govt media release for your info:


8 March 2006
DRAGWAY CRITICS PLAN SOME CONFECTED OUTRAGE

The Canberra community was entitled to ask just how genuine the complaints of certain anti-dragway groups really were, after revelations that one group planned to invite the ACT Government to a non-existent meeting, solely for the purposes of issuing an angry press release if the invitation was refused, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said today.

An email from the North Canberra Community Council to members reveals that the council proposed to invite Chief Minister Jon Stanhope to a community meeting ‘within the next month’, in anticipation of a refusal, which would then allow the council to issue a “media release stating that Stanhope refuses to meet potentially affected community”.

Mr Stanhope said today that one was entitled to question the tactics of a community organisation which would issue an invitation to a non-existent meeting, clearly in the hope that it would be refused, as a pretext for then attacking the Government for its refusal to consult.

“The ACT Government has always acknowledged that there are diverse and even passionate views concerning the construction of a dragway and many issues to be resolved before a final decision can be made to proceed with the project,” Mr Stanhope said today. “That is one of the reasons the process has been so protracted, and why the Government has been at pains to involve as many stakeholders as possible in the process — including residents in the areas of Canberra closest to the proposed site.

“It is why the Chair of the North Canberra Community Council, David Dall, was a member of the advisory committee established by the Government to recommend a way forward, and it is important to remind the council that Mr Dall, in his minority report to the Government, said he believed it was reasonable for the Government to continue consideration of and consultation on the proposal to build a dragway at Majura.

“That is precisely what the Government is now doing — and I have made it absolutely clear that that process will involve further community consultation. Indeed, the community discussion paper the Government published last month, at the time it announced it would proceed to a detailed analysis of the dragway proposal, makes it clear that community consultation is not at an end.

“It is particularly disingenuous of the North Canberra Community Council to plan its little media stunt in relation to consultation, when the council is actually named in the discussion paper as one of the ‘key stakeholders’ to receive a future presentation on the dragway proposal and the detailed analysis phase.”

Mr Stanhope suggested that members of the council familiarise themselves with that discussion paper, at http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/actdragway...ssionpaper.pdf before allowing themselves to become party to a confected media stunt. "