Page 419 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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up this issue three, four, five or six years ago. Perhaps we could have a bit more detail on that.
These are the sorts of issues that one should explore. When one is forgoing debt, one should find out what the history is. But we do not have time for that, and we do not know the detail of it. This is a problem that the government are creating—where they transferred a debt to the Brumbies and for many years have insisted that the Brumbies clear that debt. But they have now come to their senses, and we all welcome it.
When the minister announced it, it was announced as though it was some sort of package that would further rugby in the ACT and that there were things that were going to happen with the money. In some ways, that is correct, because it will free up money that the Brumbies can use on the development of the code. But at the time it was put forward in a vastly different light from the reality of what this money is actually for.
I have spoken about the RSPCA. I note that the Chief Minister is with us now. I spoke about the domestic tourism marketing campaign. Perhaps Mr Barr will explain what the $40,000 will be spent on and where it will be spent—unless the Chief Minister is doing that—and what the $460,000 will be spent on, or whether all of the $460,000 will now be spent on tourism. It was sold as a $500,000 tourism package and it is now down to $460,000. I would like some detail. This is detail that I have not been able to get. It is detail that we could have explored in a proper estimates process, but perhaps the minister will give us the courtesy of filling in the detail.
In regard to the cycling infrastructure, there is $2½ million there over the two years and then some expenses and depreciation. It would be great if we had the detail of that. Perhaps the minister will give us the courtesy of telling us what the capital will be spent on. The Canberra Liberals went to the election with a very strong program to bring forward spending and make it happen so that we fixed up the signage and the bike paths in time for the championships next year, which we think is a good thing. The Speaker was at that meeting as well, and I think Mr Barr was. It would be nice to have some information on this. Again, it simply highlights the inability to pass money in good faith because we do not have the level of detail that we need and the interaction that we should have had.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (8.54): I want to speak on a few of these items. The RSPCA usually has increased demand for its services over the holiday period. People get pets and they did not want to get the pets, people go on holidays, and all of these things. In order for the RSPCA to do everything that the community expects of it over the coming months, we are satisfied that it needs the additional funding immediately, and we support the inclusion of that in the bill.
On the next item, the domestic tourism marketing campaign, we understand that this is part of a wider economic stimulus package aimed at bringing visitors to the ACT in the winter of 2009. Given the global financial crisis, we support this as a measure to fund bringing additional visitors to the ACT, which will support local jobs and local businesses. We are also very much in favour of the portion of this campaign which encourages Canberrans to shop locally, because not only does it support our local traders but also it reduces greenhouse gases which result from people travelling further afield to do their shopping.
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