Page 2258 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 23 June 2010

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The government’s intention is to seek to replicate that. That skate park was designed with members of the skateboard associations representing organisations. There was extensive consultation. We will take that consultation into account but we accept that Belconnen is different. Because of the topography, it will be a slightly different skate park requiring different design, and we will reinitiate—and indeed we already have—that engagement with skateboarders in the ACT.

There will be broader consultation. There will be broader consultation, as there always is, through the statutory processes—the need for a development application and the processes which are part and parcel of consultation and engagement with the community. So there will be broader engagement.

Having regard to the nature of this particular investment—at this stage, a $4.2 million investment which we expect to enhance, indeed, by another couple of million dollars because we intend to incorporate a full redevelopment of Emu Inlet in the construction—we intend to do it as a job lot which will involve significant wetlands work and restoration just up the valley from the Emu Inlet that is the location of the skate park.

In the context of associated works, it is a conversation we probably should have in relation to what else might be associated with the skate park. The site is more constrained than Phillip. It is between a site that has just been sold for the establishment of a medical practice to serve Gungahlin and—(Time expired.)

MR SPEAKER: Mr Coe, a supplementary question?

MR COE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, what stage is the Lake Ginninderra foreshore project capital works program up to? How many times has the project been rescoped?

MR STANHOPE: My understanding is that the project is out to tender. I would assume—I think it went to tender almost, I think from memory, six to eight weeks ago.

Mr Coe: You have not spent any money yet?

MR SPEAKER: Mr Coe, you have asked your question.

MR STANHOPE: It has been designed. It is a major project. I would have to check the number but it is an investment somewhere in the order of $7 million, a major upgrade to the amenity of Lake Ginninderra. It is way above anything the Liberal Party ever did for Belconnen. Actually, $7 million is probably the sum total of the Liberal Party’s investment in Belconnen in the six years they were in government. I think if we went all round Belconnen we would struggle to find $7 million worth of investment by the Liberal Party in Belconnen over six years.

Here we are investing $7 million in a foreshore upgrade adjacent to the $8 million arts centre which, of course, I had the great pleasure of opening a year or so ago. So there we have it: $7 million cheek by jowl with an $8 million arts centre which runs onto a


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