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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2749 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Hypocritical. Oh, Mr Speaker, I would not dream of using the word "hypocritical"! That would be furthest from my mind. I can see that any party that promised to support urban infill and now finds itself unable to touch or even to approach an idea of urban infill at any stage in any place in the city must have obviously had a dramatic transformation in their ideological base, and no doubt will tell the Assembly at some stage why they have decided that urban infill is now a very bad idea when they told the people of Canberra in 1995 that it was a very good idea.

MS TUCKER: I have a supplementary question. I will enjoy responding to that issue during the adjournment debate this evening, if Mr Humphries wants to hang around. My supplementary question is this: will you be initiating a variation to the Territory Plan if you want to proceed with this?

MR HUMPHRIES: Of course, Mr Speaker. Actually, no; we were going to do it in the middle of the night when no-one was watching. We were going to get the bulldozers lined up and then rush down the slope, knock all the buildings over, and build the houses really quickly so that no-one knew about it. Now, of course, Ms Tucker has exposed our plans, so we have to go back to a variation to the Territory Plan.

MR BERRY: My question is to the Chief Minister in relation to her contribution to Canberra bashing. I would like her first of all to confirm or deny her knowledge, or otherwise, of the cancellation of block bookings which she refused to answer when Mr Kaine asked the question. She can confirm or deny her knowledge of that.

I should give you a little background before we get to the punchline. The functional design brief for the Bruce Stadium redevelopment specified a finished profile for the playing area that would conform to FIFA and SOCOG standards and was such that damaged areas could be removed and a new surface provided with 24 hours to allow for an international standard surface for any football code. The brief specified turf made up of 80 per cent fine leafed perennial rye grass and 20 per cent Kentucky blue grass which has proven to have been a successful sports turf in the Canberra region. That is not surprising. Anybody who has a garden in the ACT knows that that is a common mix for the garden.

Mr Rugendyke: Cold weather grass.

MR BERRY: Cold weather grass. Frost resistant. This turf was laid originally at Bruce at a cost of $109,482. Mr Speaker, we know that there are going to be two further layings at $400,000 a time. That is going to come out of the Olympic bucket. Who knows what is going to be cut as a result, but I will get back to the issue of the grass. Now we know, according to reports on comments from you, Chief Minister, that the turf chosen to resurface Bruce, supplied by Tropical Lawns of Cairns, is reportedly couch-based. Everybody who lives in Canberra and who has a lawn, if they look out their back window now, will see brown patches in it. That is couch.

Mr Humphries: Or they are just not watering it.

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