Page 299 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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apologise to Mr Stefaniak. This question relates to a matter that he has raised as a matter of public importance, but I had given a commitment that this question be asked today, anyway. In the light of the proposal to allow the Canberra Raiders to take over Bruce Stadium in 1990 and so deprive the Canberra community of a first-class athletics facility, will the Minister give an undertaking to upgrade the present Woden athletic field by the installation of floodlighting and the laying of a racatan track. Does he agree that because of what will almost be the exclusive use by the AIS of the remaining warm-up track and facilities at Bruce, the upgrading of the Woden ground will enable other athletics groups, such as local, regional and interstate schools as well as local community athletics organisations, to participate on a good, standard, all-weather facility that would go some way to replacing that at the stadium?
MR WHALAN: On Monday of this week I had a very long and extensive meeting with representatives of various athletic organisations in the ACT and we discussed specifically at that meeting the redevelopment of the warm-up track at Bruce. Present at that meeting were representatives of the senior clubs, little athletics, and the Australian Institute of Sport. The outcome of that meeting was that the athletics groups acknowledged that the redeveloped facility on the warm-up track will be far superior to the existing facility which exists within the ACT. They have one criticism remaining there, and that is that for certain international meets it would fail to meet the requirement in one respect, and that is that it would itself lack a warm-up track. It would not have to be a full-size warm-up track, but it would lack such a track. So that is the only way in which it would be deficient.
The question of the use was discussed, and I emphasise this as it is central to your question in relation to Woden. It is clear that the requirements of the Institute of Sport are not such that it would have the exclusive use of the facility. In fact, it is quite clear that the senior athletics groups, the little athletics and the veterans athletics can all be very comfortably accommodated within the program of the Institute of Sport. Given that arrangement, the facility there will more than adequately meet the requirements of athletics. That would seem to answer the point that Mr Duby has raised in relation to the Woden facility.
RETAIL INDUSTRY
MR COLLAERY: Is the Minister for Industry, Employment and Education aware of the very serious plight of many retailers in the ACT region at this time, and, if so, will he be undertaking a review of the retail industry situation? Will the Minister be reviving the Business Leases Review Ordinance, last drafted in 1984, and establishing a business leases review board or like-minded body in the very near future?
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