Page 568 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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actually lobbying us for something and trying to seek a benefit or expressing a view that they would like some accommodation to be delivered and they do not necessarily want it delivered to another organisation down the road.
All I can say is that I have met with a number of organisations around this. There are some good proposals on the table. The government are keen to assist the community sector where we can—to have that strategic outlook, to make sure that we are looking at how we can support the sustainability of the sector into the future. Part of that is around accommodation. I know that the Griffin Centre has its critics, and perhaps it was not everything that it should have been, but if we had enough—
Mrs Dunne: It is a damn sight better than it was.
MS GALLAGHER: If we had another four of them across the ACT, we would be in pretty good standing, I think. We could probably fill them. It is a good model in the sense of co-locating a number of organisations and having that capacity to share if they choose to.
This work is under way. It is in those very early stages. The government need some more advice about the best way forward, but we are very conscious of the opportunities that are afforded to us to support the community sector in any decision that the government may take.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.10): I seek leave to amend Mr Hargreaves’s amendment in the terms of the document circulated in my name.
Leave granted.
MRS DUNNE: I move:
Add:
“(2) calls on the Government to table this advice in the Legislative Assembly before any decisions are made about surplus school properties.”.
I thank members for their indulgence and I apologise for a change to the wording of my amendment. The Deputy Clerk pointed out a couple of problems with my original amendment, so I am now speaking to the one that says, nicely, “amended” in the top right-hand corner.
This amendment to Mr Hargreaves’s amendment is really to put the wood on the government. Mr Hargreaves spoke well about the process and how it was going to be a thoughtful process. I think that many of the misconceptions or suspicions that members of the community have would be allayed if this amendment were agreed to. While the government says that it will not take any decisions until it has got advice on how to best use surplus property, I think that, given that this is such a contentious community issue, the government should make that information available to the Assembly and, through it, to the public.
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