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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2366 ..
MR STEFANIAK
: Actually, Chief Minister, I put $200,000 into refurbishing the community centre for a theatre a couple of years ago, which was not a bad little start.Mr Stanhope
: There was no arts centre under you, Bill.MR STEFANIAK
: We did not have any money, Chief Minister, because we did not have anything in the kitty when we took over. Now that we actually have a very good financial situation as a result of the hard work done by the former Liberal government, what are you doing?Mr Speaker, a real problem here-one which I was absolutely flabbergasted to see because I thought that we had had enough evidence to show that such things are just unworkable-is the target in relation to sports ground and asset maintenance. Sports ground and asset maintenance costs a fair bit of money. Water costs are going up in this budget-I do not think that we would quibble with that-as a result of the scarcity of water resources in the ACT. I think that everyone accepts that. I was amazed to see on page 186, under sports ground and asset maintenance, a target for 2002-03 of $4.878 million and an estimated outcome, because of the drought, of $5.493 million, close to $51/2 million, and a target for next year of $4.868 million, $10,000 less than the target for this year and about $600,000 or $700,000 less than was spent this year.
The drought is not breaking, water costs are doubling in many instances and we will not be having fewer sports grounds. The minister has conceded that this government will not be going down the disastrous path that the Follett government took in 1993 when it made 27 ovals low maintenance ovals. It took us a considerable amount of time and effort to bring most of them back to full maintenance. No, they are not going to make the full maintenance ovals low maintenance again, yet they have allocated a lesser figure than they targeted for last year, which blew out considerably. I find that just inconceivable. You cannot actually water the ovals less. That was suggested to me back in 1996, and it would have been absolutely disastrous.
Ms MacDonald
: Kate Carnell thought you could.MR STEFANIAK
: No, she did not. It would have been absolutely disastrous. You cannot do that because you would actually kill the root systems. Ovals cost money, which was why we increased our budget, otherwise you will blow your budget.That particular part of this budget is an accident waiting to happen. Minister, you will have to have a virtual deluge on a fairly regular basis to meet your target there. It simply is not going to work and I think that it is absolutely crazy to put a figure like that in your actual budget. I have no idea why that occurred. It is simply unsustainable. I think that it is indicative of a lot of wishful thinking in that area.
Mr Stanhope made a number of comments about pay parking. I think that Mrs Dunne has made a number of valid points there. Parking offences are probably about the third or fourth most serious offences in the ACT, because if you do not pay your fine your licence or registration and third party insurance are taken away and it is an absolute hassle to get them back.
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