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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2365 ..
MR STEFANIAK
(continuing):$300,000 has been spent to date. I think that that is indicative of the capital works budget. I find it particularly worrying in relation to the two projects I have just mentioned.
The budget is a little bit light on in some respects for capital works. As a Belconnen representative, I am always very keen to see a fair spread throughout electorates, especially the northern electorate. I was a little concerned to see that. There are some good works there, a lot of them a continuation of things announced several years ago. The William Hovell Drive extension is absolutely essential.
Mrs Dunne
: At last.MR STEFANIAK
: At last. Money was put in initially a couple of years ago and, finally, it has been going ahead only in the last six or seven weeks, but at least it is going ahead. It is good to see some projects which have been there for a while actually coming to fruition. It is good to see that the Kippax library is finally going to be a permanent library.Mrs Dunne
: But read their lips.MR STEFANIAK
: That is a good point, Mrs Dunne. I anticipate what you are going to say.Mr Stanhope
: Thank God for the Labor government.MR STEFANIAK
: Chief Minister, your Labor government predecessor was going to get rid of the temporary library back in 1994 and it was only because of a lot of community activity that that was stopped. Indeed, its future was assured by the previous government when it finally got over the absolute abomination caused by the Labor government and the complete lack of money in the kitty. We were so far in the red that it was unbelievable for about six years, but we actually got to put some money in it. To your credit, you are actually going to complete it. But you are not really listening to the community on that, because you are putting it on a site where most of the community do not actually want it to be. So much for consultation. At least there is money in the budget for it and, hopefully, it will occur. It would be nice if it were built on the site where most people want it to be, but at least it will be actually happening. I will give you some credit for that, but only some. I am not going to go overboard on that.There are a couple of real problems with the Urban Services part of the budget.
Mr Stanhope
: A new police station, an arts centre.MR STEFANIAK
: The Chief Minister mentions an arts centre. Chief Minister, there is a real need for an arts centre in Belconnen, and what have we got here? We have $60,000 to look at something somewhere north of the lake, that is, Lake Burley Griffin.Mr Stanhope
: What did you do, Bill? Nothing.
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