Page 1864 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 May 2009
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That is the easy way out and is not a particularly clever strategy. On the minister’s own analysis, there will not be any other savings. So this cannot be a driver for change.
What the minister wants to do is bring EPIC under the Territory Venues and Events Unit in Territory and Municipal Services. This unit manages three of Canberra’s premier sporting venues—Manuka Oval, the Canberra Stadium and the Stromlo Forest Park—but it has no experience in managing such a diverse facility as EPIC. Moreover, EPIC is not a sporting venue. What this would mean is that EPIC would move from being managed by a board that has a good combination of commercial, strategic and event expertise to being a facility that is managed by people who have no particular commercial imperative, who may not have any expertise in the nature of events that are suitable for EPIC and who may have no strategic planning experience whatsoever. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater!
This is an entirely misguided proposal from the Stanhope-Gallagher government and should be opposed on a number of grounds. We will be opposing this bill. In fact, we want to see the board of the corporation able to manage EPIC effectively and develop EPIC into an even more substantial asset for the ACT and the region.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.30): In speaking to this bill today I would firstly like to note the value of the amendment to standing order 172 which was made late last year as a result of the Greens-ALP agreement. This is an amendment that has created a situation where a bill should not be passed in the same sitting period in which it was introduced unless otherwise considered urgent.
I think this bill has demonstrated very well the value of that approach because it has given us time to consider this bill and, at least in the case of the Greens, to go out and talk to some of the stakeholders involved in this issue, ask them their views, consider the government’s plan, potentially enter into a discussion with the government about the content of the bill and then come to the floor of the Assembly today and actually have a substantive debate. That has been the process for my colleagues in the Greens and me. It has been very valuable and I think underlines the value of that amendment to that standing order. I commend that standing order to the Assembly in its new form and trust that it will become a permanent, not just temporary, standing order of this place.
That process of discussion and consultation with stakeholders has produced some very interesting feedback for us. I think it is very clear that EPIC is a venue highly valued by the Canberra community. It hosts more than 300 events annually, ranging from the National Folk Festival through to Summernats, the Royal Canberra Show and a large number of livestock and animal-related shows in between. It is a very diverse venue that brings in a large number of communities, not just from Canberra but from the region and from all around the country. I think it is a great asset for Canberra.
I think we have also learnt—and Mr Smyth has already noted this—the struggles of EPIC in recent years to progress, to be able to improve the facilities and to be able to continue to update EPIC and maintain it as a national, quality venue. I think those issues particularly relate to the ability to obtain new land and to proceed with building
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