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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 3512 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

Another highlight of the festival was that the five choirs within the Tuggeranong region came together and there were 300 people on stage singing at the same time, which was absolutely superb.

Mr Speaker, I want to pay tribute to the sponsors and raise a point about sponsorship. In the past when I was connected with the festival committee we had sponsorship from the ACT government. Initially, it was for $6,000 and then it went up to $12,500. That was under a Labor regime. The Liberals withdrew that funding and, for a period, the only support the festival got was in kind, for which the organisers were grateful, but the cash dried up. I want to express my appreciation to the current ACT government for the $5,000 it gave in cash through artsACT.

The major sponsors provided an enormous amount in cash which enabled the organisers to pay for things such as the Mental As Anything concert. They were: LJ Hooker in Tuggeranong, Communities @ Work, Bunnings, the new Calwell/Wanniassa Community Bank, the Southern Cross Club in Tuggeranong, the Burns Club, the Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club, artsACT, whose sponsorship of $5,000 I have already mentioned, the Tuggeranong Hyperdome and the Chronicle.

They were the cash contributors. There were also lots of contributions in kind from people. That is where the various bits of the ACT government actually came in and gave assistance. I must set the record straight, as I do not want people to consider that the previous Liberal government was totally unsupportive of the festival. I do not want anybody to interpret my comments in that way. I can recall asking Mr Smyth, as the then Minister for Urban Services, for some assistance in rubbish bin collection and the provision of toilets or something along those lines and he was able to provide for that through the department. The in-kind support has been continuing and I would like to see it continue into the future.

ActewAGL, as always, was a huge supporter. This time the Country Comfort Motel in Greenway was also supportive. Interestingly, the motel was sold out that night. It is a fantastic thing for a motel right in the middle of Tuggeranong to be totally sold out. The reason was that teams coming from Sydney, Wagga and the region booked the place out. Domino's Pizza, Hoyts Cinemas Tuggeranong, Wanniassa Hy-Grade Meats, Valley FM, the local radio station, EcoWise, the Chronicle, which I have mentioned already, Duesburys Chartered Accountants, Broadleaf Capital International, Pratts Tackle Box-I hope there is no connection-and Dean's Trophy Centre also contributed much in time.

Mr Speaker, it is important to acknowledge the many community groups, clubs and organisations that got involved. These groups have come together without assistance from CTEC and do not necessarily need such assistance, but it would be handy to have them on board. I heard a rumour that CTEC are not all that fussed about the Tuggeranong Community Festival. I hope that there is no credence to that rumour. I would like to see the CTEC people come on board and provide some professional assistance to the festival's organisers.

The groups, clubs and organisations involved included the Rotary Club of Tuggeranong, Tuggeranong Community Arts, Lake Tuggeranong Sea Scouts, the ACT Emergency Services Bureau, St John Ambulance, Vikings Fishing Club, Burns Fishing Club,

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