Thursday 15 September 2016
Hansard of the Legislative Council

STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDORS (STRATEGIC AND RECREATIONAL USE)
BILL 2016 (No. 39)

Mr FINCH (Rosevears) - Mr President, I support the adjournment.  I appreciated very much the fulsome briefings that we have had.  It has been good to have that information and for people to have the opportunity to present their sides of the debate with what is going on here.  However, there was so much information yesterday and so much misinformation, from what I can glean.  We were given one side of the story, completely refuted by the opponents and then you are trying to make sense of where the truth actually lies and the facts are.  That has really confused the issue.  From yesterday, it was quite a conundrum for me to find a way forward and to make a decision about where my vote should go.

I appreciated very much the minister making himself available this morning to put some clarity around some aspects of the argument.  That has helped me to find a way forward in this debate.  However, I was a bit concerned about talk of this perhaps going to a committee as this does not reflect well on this House:  if we squib it - is that the right word? - and say well, let's bail out here and duck for cover and shoot it off to a committee and stall the process, in some cases it is needed; we need to look at the committee process.  In this case, it is not going to look good if we cannot make the tough decision that needs to be made.  I do not envy the honourable member for Apsley's situation one iota.  The left hand is going this way and the right hand is going that way, so it is a very tough situation in representing the community in this respect with two forces in the community.