Page 3762 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
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appreciative the government has been of the cooperation that we have received across the entire industry, from private venue managers and all of the people involved in the sport and recreation industry.
We have made a series of investments in government-owned facilities to reduce our reliance on potable water. I refer to the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the Comtrol irrigation system, the installation of backwash recycling facilities at Manuka pool—and we are looking as well to bring it in at Dickson pool at the end of this summer—and the development of the Point Hut irrigation system for the Conder and Gordon playing fields. We are in the middle of a feasibility study with the commonwealth in relation to stormwater harvesting. It is an important opportunity to capture up to three gigalitres of stormwater, so that is a very important project.
The government has announced, through the second appropriation bill, a record amount of funding for sports to partner with government to address water usage issues within the sport and recreation industry. A $2 million additional grants round available in 2008 will take the sports grants for 2008 to $4 million—a new record in sport and recreation. We look forward to seeing some innovative proposals around synthetic surfaces and around a range of responses to reduce water usage in the sport and recreation industry.
I am very pleased with the cooperative nature of the industry and very excited by some of the proposals that have been brought forward by the range of sports. We look forward to a continuing strong relationship and the delivery of some fantastic outcomes in terms of reduced water usage.
MR SPEAKER: The time for the discussion has concluded.
Impact of federal election on intergovernmental relations
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (4.53): I move:
That, given the stark choice before the Australian people on Saturday next, 24 November 2007, this Assembly:
(1) welcomes the prospect of the election of a Rudd Labor Federal Government;
(2) notes the consequent benefit to the ACT in critical policy and administrative areas such as Commonwealth-State relations, health, and education, and the importance of a genuine education revolution to the ACT, and Australia’s, social and economic wellbeing; and
(3) notes that the abolition of Work Choices would remove the threat to the livelihoods of working Canberrans and their families.
The prospect of the election of a Rudd Labor federal government on Saturday is one that should lift the spirits of all Canberrans. It is a prospect that could herald a great new period of cooperative federalism, particularly in such crucial areas as health and education.
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