Page 3959 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 December 2021
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MADAM SPEAKER: Members!
Mr Cain interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Cain!
MS BERRY: Madam Speaker, that is completely unacceptable behaviour from a member of the opposition.
MADAM SPEAKER: I have called him to order, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Ms Castley is well aware of the issues that have faced Gungahlin pool, particularly around the ability to get a workforce to come and do that work at Gungahlin pool, because of COVID. She is well aware of that. The sports directorate has been providing updates regularly to the YMCA and the Gungahlin pool, and directly to the Gungahlin Community Council. Ms Castley knows exactly what is going on at the Gungahlin pool and she knows exactly the reasons why there has been a delay.
I am as frustrated as everybody else in Gungahlin that uses that pool facility that it has been out of use for some period. It is incredibly frustrating and distressing for the Gungahlin pool community. That is why we have been getting on with the work to make sure that it can be upgraded and repaired as soon as we possibly can. Unfortunately, the international health pandemic impacted the ability to recruit the workers to do the actual work.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary.
MS CASTLEY: Will the government provide financial compensation—in light of no date for the pool to open on the website—to members, including squad swimmers, forced elsewhere because of the pool’s closure?
MS BERRY: We are working with the pool community about what that might look like in future. A couple of the other things that the government has invested in as far as the pool repairs are concerned include discussing with some of the pool users some of the upgrades that could occur at that pool in the meantime as we are doing the repairs on the tiles and the membrane work. When we talked with the lap swimmers, as well as the water polo association, some of those upgrades were about ensuring that we could make the pool’s lighting better; so we are installing better lighting in the pool so that it is better for those pool user communities. In addition to that, we are doing noise-muffling works to make sure that the pool is a bit less noisy when water polo activities are occurring in the pool. Those are two additional measures that the ACT government had taken on in discussions with the pool communities as far as making those upgrades better and bringing the pool back in better condition than it was.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Milligan.
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