Mr MARTIN(4.21 p.m.) —This motion allows me an opportunity to practise my former black art of urban and regional planning that some 13 years ago earned me a crust while working for the New South Wales state government. I wish to refer to two issues associated with the motion that my good friend the member for Griffith (Mr McDougall) has moved today and, by way of illustration, refer to two projects which I think sum up exactly the sorts of difficulties he is talking about.

The first is in respect of a proposal to reopen a copper smelter in the electorate of my good friend and adjoining neighbour the member for Throsby (Mr Hollis) at Port Kembla. This smelter project started in about 1927 and ran into various problems. A couple of years ago it finally closed down. After much effort by the New South Wales state government, an investor was attracted from Japan. Something like $270 million was invested in that project, and 300 permanent jobs will have been created by the time the project is completed. Through various state government inquiries and controls, world leading edge technology is to be applied to that particular project.

In an area like ours where unemployment is about 11 per cent and in some of the southern suburbs in the electorate of Throsby closer to 20 per cent, one would have thought that the prospect of getting a project like that, particularly one attracting foreign investment, would be welcome. But a small group of individuals—surprisingly, led by somebody who used to work at the former smelter—did their level best to scupper the project.

Fortunately, the New South Wales government, with the leadership displayed by Bob Carr and Michael Egan, clearly recognised the importance of this project to the Illawarra. They had to go to the extent of passing special legislation to give it final approval, because one of these people appealed to the Land and Environment Court against the original decision by state and local authorities to grant approval for the project. When the original project was on display for approval only about two people lodged objections to the whole thing, and she was not one, and then after the event said, `Oh, well, they should have written to me.' As a consequence, she launched an appeal in the Land and Environment Court using environmental funds provided by the state government to do so.

I will not earn any more friends down there by raising this in the parliament again today. But, as the Chairman of the Illawarra Regional Economic Development Organisation, as somebody who believes that you have got to put the national good above some self-centred local good from time to time, convinced by the fact that the environmental processes have been followed and that the strictest forms of environmental control will be applied to this project and guided by the fact that we need jobs in Wollongong, I will be the first to put my hand up and support it at every turn.

The second issue is something on which I think we have to be a touch careful. It draws on some of the comments made by my friend the member for Denison (Mr Kerr). I am sorry the member for Bendigo (Mr Reid) has gone, because he recently chaired a House of Representatives committee which looked at fair trading. He handed down in this place a report on fair trading, specifically in respect of retail shopping centres, and a section in that report dealt with the need in the planning process for retail impact analyses when local government and state authorities look at the way in which approval should be given for the expansion of existing shopping centres or the development of new ones.

The reason that this was advanced in the report of the committee of inquiry—Mr Deputy Speaker Jenkins, I am delighted to see you here, because you are a member of that committee; you have an interest in this because of your local government experience and know what I am talking about—was that the problem encountered was that on many occasions not enough attention was given to expanding regional shopping centres at the expense of existing shopping centres and small retailers in ribbon developments. In days gone by, the prosperity of a local community was often measured by the height of the spire on the local cathedral or church. It seems that these days it is measured by the number of speciality shops associated with a Coles Myer or David Jones development in a regional shopping centre.

My concern here is that I recently visited a proposed shopping development at Raymond Terrace in New South Wales and it seems the local council owns some land and has decided to rezone it because it is going to sell it to Woolworths to build a new shopping centre. The only thing is that Woolworths already owns one. All the tenants in the existing retail centre that Woolworths manages are quite upset by the prospect of this other centre taking place. Lack of coordination and failing to look at the bottom line—in this case, as I understand it, by the local council—are issues that need to be addressed. (Time expired)

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jenkins) —Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.