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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2698 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for the ACT. That sounds a bit like the Bruce Stadium redevelopment, really, doesn't it?

Mr Humphries: Or VITAB.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries interjects. I have been through two inquiries and come out unscathed, but the government cannot say that about itself. I bet you would swap all your disasters for a VITAB any day.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The GMC400 is the matter under discussion.

MR BERRY: This event is falling apart at the seams, like the Bruce Stadium redevelopment, regrettably. Mr Deputy Speaker, if you look at the financial performance of this event, you will find that the operating loss of $1.45 million was due to a fall in ticket sales. There was a massive fall in total ticket sales-down from 58,540 to 39,082. This could not have been unexpected, because experts tell me-

Mr Smyth: It rained.

MR BERRY: It rained! I watched the event on television and I was there on the Friday. Rain was not the issue. The experts know that the second and outyears-

Mr Smyth: You are an expert.

MR BERRY: No, this is what they told me. The experts told me that the outyears were always going to be harder going, but the numbers were not built into the business case. The government was conned, again. There was an operating loss of $1.45 million this year. Similar results in the outyears will mean in the end that the fifth year will be at risk if no further funds are put into this event. CTEC is saying that it can find funds somewhere else. Perhaps it can find them from the Floriade. Perhaps we will knock off the Floriade every second year so that we can fund the V8 car race. Is that your plan? That is the only outcome that will result from this loss. CTEC will have to cut something else to pay for the V8 car race.

Mr Smyth: What would you do?

MR BERRY: Mr Smyth, I am glad to say, interjects. We would not have got ourselves into this mess, Mr Smyth, and we would not have wasted the $100 million which your lot have wasted and which could be of benefit to our schools and troubled hospitals, instead of being wasted on things such as the Bruce Stadium-

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Berry! The report is under discussion, not anything else. Let us keep to the report.

MR BERRY: Mr Deputy Speaker, that is the difference between us and them. We do not just throw other people's money at issues like this lot have done.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Speak to the report, please.

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