Page 3007 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 October 2022
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We are also providing important funding for community facilities across Canberra, including new fencing and the installation of solar panels at Grant Cameron and Flynn community centres and undertaking walkway and roofing works at Pearce Community Centre. In 2022-23 we will be undertaking a range of works across a range of buildings, including Ginninderra Childcare, Holt Community Centre, as well as Erindale Business Centre. Facilities like these are important to the community, and the government is committed to funding for regular upgrades and maintenance to them.
I am very pleased that the budget delivers $1.2 million to replace the turf at GIO Stadium and Manuka Oval and a further $1 million for safety maintenance and rectification works at both facilities. Canberrans care about their sport and these important turf replacements are part of our investment in our sporting facilities. Works will also take place to improve lighting systems and audiovisual systems for major sporting events.
The government continues to support the recreational activities in the ACT. We are delivering further works and improvements to the National Arboretum and at Stromlo Forest Park through the budget. The Arboretum enjoys strong visitor rates from Canberrans and tourists, with numbers expected to continue to grow over coming years. To support this, we are making investments in forest signage, customer engagement, the Village Centre and refurbishing the much-loved POD Playground slide. We are also continuing to make improvements to trails and signage at Stromlo Forest Park.
The government continues to work in moving more government facilities off gas. Through the budget it has funded the replacement of the gas-fired assets at 255 Canberra Avenue, which houses the Heritage Library and a variety of government agencies. We are working hard to deliver on our commitment to transition government facilities off gas, and this project builds on what is happening across the ACT government’s property portfolio.
We are continuing to make progress as well in getting more government services online—this was mentioned before in the debate—and giving more options for how Canberrans can interact with the ACT government online. The budget provides funding to strengthen the digital account platform, which now supports over 200,000 account holders. We will continue to support more services to be delivered online. New funding will support the design of new school enrolment systems and parent permission systems, in collaboration with the Education Directorate. We will also begin work to enhance the vehicle registration system.
In response to Mr Cain’s comments in relation to FOI, we have demonstrated in successive budgets that we have been putting the resources into agencies to manage FOI requests when they are made to various agencies. We are continuing to look at the resourcing required, going forward. We have been undertaking a significant amount of policy and legislative work, which, as I told Mr Cain in estimates, is my role. In fact, I have introduced a freedom of information amendment bill into this place for the Assembly to consider. It will make a range of practical improvements to
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