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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2111 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Of course, things like the Aussie Sports leaders program, which will train another 1,000 leaders to work with 15,000 schoolchildren, has gone exceptionally well so far. That will further help the Government's moves to improve physical education and health in the schools. Again, that leads to areas where it really is needed - young teenage girls especially and people who might not necessarily be active and who need to be encouraged to become more active. Our policies in that part of the education area, along with the expansion of the Aussie Sports leaders program, will certainly target a number of people who I think could be more active. I think that is a very positive initiative.

Ms McRae mentioned facilities for the disabled. In any major facilities that are built now regard has to be had for the disabled. One only needs to look at the pool at the Tuggeranong indoor leisure centre. It has access for the disabled. Such access will be included in the aquatic centre that will be built on the northern side by 1999. Those things are taken into account. Certainly, the success of our disabled athletes in the Paralympics is a source of great pride to us all. In summary, whilst there might be a couple of things in what Ms McRae mentions, I think a lot of what she says is taken up on page 274. I am not too sure whether what she says is really something for the budget papers or perhaps for something else. I am glad that she seems to be happy with what is a good program that is keeping the Territory in the forefront in sport and recreation in Australia. I thank her for her comments.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Proposed expenditure - Department of Business, the Arts, Sport and Tourism, $70,525,900 (comprising net cost of outputs, $35,099,700; capital injection, $20,735,700; and payments on behalf of Territory, $14,690,500) - agreed to.

Part 10 - Urban Services

Proposed expenditure - Urban Services, $136,604,000 (comprising net cost of outputs, $130,095,000; and payments on behalf of Territory, $6,509,000)

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (4.47): There are just a couple of things about the Urban Services portfolio that I wanted to touch on. It should be noted that most of the things which used to get done by Urban Services are now being done by Totalcare. It is a much diminished range of services being provided, although there are still some quite significant services being provided and purchased by Urban Services - such basic services as garbage collection, road maintenance, streetlighting until the Government sells it to ACTEW, stormwater drain maintenance and a whole range of other very important functions.

A few issues that came out of the Estimates Committee, I thought, reflected on the way this Minister manages his portfolio. Some issues that came out in the course of debate in the community also deserve some comment. In the course of the Estimates Committee process the question of whether the department was looking at converting bus lanes on Adelaide Avenue into transit lanes came up. It was revealed by the department that yes, indeed, they were looking at this. The Minister was asked what he thought of it.

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