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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2364 ..
MRS DUNNE
(continuing):hanging around his neck ever since he became the minister and about which he has done nothing.
I will close by rubbishing this government for their appalling treatment of Clean Up Australia. What did they do in the budget? They made another mean-minded cut, just for the sake of it. We took away 50 per cent of the budget of Volunteering ACT and we are now going to take away 50 per cent of the budget for Clean Up Australia because, against competing priorities, a decision was made to reduce levels of sponsorship for Clean Up Australia.
Here we have another example of ACT people working for the benefit of the ACT community and improving the land on which they live and this mean-minded government, whose members are walking around saying that the budget surplus could be $60 million or it could be as much as $100 million, cannot be big enough to give $8,000 to Clean Up Australia. This is the measure of this government. It is mean minded, it is low and it spends its time cutting out of the volunteer sector, which is a disgrace.
MR STEFANIAK
(9.29): Mr Speaker-Mr Stanhope
: Bill, you promised me before that you wouldn't gasbag like your colleagues.MR STEFANIAK
: Jon, your lot were the first to introduce pay parking in Belconnen. Mr Speaker, contrary to what I heard upstairs, the minister is not reading a Harry Potter book; he is reading another work of fiction instead. In fact, I thought of bringing Harry Potter volume 5 along tonight.In relation to Urban Services, I have a number of comments. Firstly, in relation to capital works, it is disturbing that a number of projects for which money was put in there several years ago still have not come to fruition. I might as well start with some of the arts projects.
Mr Stanhope
: Start with the Belconnen pool, Bill.MR STEFANIAK
: Chief Minister, I hope that you are going to do the right thing tomorrow, because it could be under threat from a certain thing that is happening in this Assembly. An interesting thing about the Belconnen pool is that it is still happening, very slowly, Chief Minister, even under your lot.Mr Stanhope
: Hey, Bill, it's got the roof on.MR STEFANIAK
: Hopefully, Chief Minister, we will be swimming in it soon, but the project has taken an inordinate amount of time to complete. It continues to go ahead, but a lot slower than I would have hoped for under our government and under your government, Chief Minister.The glassworks project, a wonderful project, was initially funded two years ago, I think, and lo and behold, we still have $2.52 million to spend on it this year. That project should have been completed by now. I understand that only $200,000 or
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