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Navy's move to Jervis Bay defended
By IAN WARDEN
Mr Ian Farrow, the Liberal can
didate for the scat of Fraser, which
embraces the Commonwealth Terri
tory of Jervis Bay, says he favours the
proposed relocation of half the Aus
tralian fleet at Jen-is Bay and that the
onus is on the conservationists and
"anti-nuclear paranoids" to suggest
where else such a base should be built.
Mr Farrow said yesterday that the
issue, with its conservation and
nuclear components, seemed to be
"hand-made" for those who liked to
protest about such things, but that
"the record of the military in environ
mental protection has been very
good" and that "nuclear weapons and
nuclear power are a fact of life and
can't be disinvented".
The Labor Member for Fraser, Mr
John Langmore, has said that he is
"deeply disturbed" by some environ
mental aspccts of the proposed de
velopment of a large fleet base at the
bay, and has said that the presence of
nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed
ships will create dangers for the local
people.
Mr Farrow said that the choice of
Jervis Bay was based on defence con
siderations and not political ones, and
that the nuclear issue had been a
"fairly minor" consideration. It was
not a matter of foisting on Jervis Bay
a base which was environmentally
unacceptable to the people of Sydney
but a matter of giving the navy an
appropriate base with fast access to
the sea and close to existing naval
facilities.
He said that the environmental im
pact statement being prepared by the
navy and the discussions with the
Aboriginal people of the area would
safeguard any sensitive areas. He un
derstood that the navy wanted only
seven hectares of the area.
Mr Farrow said he expected a
"scare campaign" from opponents of
the move, people who, if they had had
their way, would have confined the
development of Australia to nothing
more than "a vegie patch on the
shores of Botany Bay".
He thought that his own environ
mental credentials were really quite
good. He had, among other things,
been involved in the planting of trees
and in the banding of fairy penguins
so as to be able to monitor their
migrator)' habits.
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