Page 1550 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
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MR SPEAKER: Mr Seselja, a supplementary.
MR SESELJA: Minister, will the ACT government fix the paving and furniture around this shopping centre and take responsibility for maintaining the quality of the public property around this shopping centre? If not, why not?
MS GALLAGHER: Territory and Municipal Services, as Mr Seselja would know, manage and maintain a number of public facilities across the city. In fact, I am constantly impressed at the workload before them and the way they manage to deal with that workload. It is prioritised on a list of most urgent to least urgent, and they work systematically through that. I think in terms of footpath improvements, over 3,500 kilometres of footpaths are maintained across the city. There are significant demands on this directorate.
These decisions about when improvements are managed have to be the responsibility of those operational experts in Territory and Municipal Services. It is not a matter of picking out one particular area and saying that needs a whole load of work done at the expense of what could otherwise be, around the city, other competing priorities.
I am very happy to take the advice of the experts on this. If there are some extraordinary circumstances in Kambah in that shopping centre where work is required, I have no doubt that they are on Territory and Municipal Services’ work list. But I am not going to stand here and give you a date, Mr Seselja. I am not in a position to do that. I do not think politicians should play that role.
ACT Policing—Belconnen police station
MR HANSON: My question is to the Attorney-General. On 28 March 2012, the Canberra Times included an advertising feature on the Belconnen police station opening. What was the cost to ACT taxpayers of this brochure?
MR CORBELL: The full costs of that brochure were met by ACT Policing. The cost was $11,267, which was paid for by the Australian Federal Police. I can also advise the member that the Canberra Times, as part of an agreement in relation to the printing of the lift-out, was responsible for the design and contributed additional sponsorship, along with eight paid advertisements, to enable the supplement to expand to 24 pages.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, a supplementary.
MR HANSON: Yes. Does the brochure state that the project is $5 million over budget and, if not, why not?
MR CORBELL: This is an excellent project for the Belconnen community—a new Belconnen police station that will replace an outdated facility. It does not make reference to the matters Mr Hanson raises because, as Mr Hanson knows, his claims in relation to those matters ignore a number of significant facts about why those circumstances came about.
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