Page 316 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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Stadium is simply going to be a home base for the Canberra Raiders, and that that will be it. I have little doubt that the Bruce Stadium will be the base for a whole range of sports far more than we are able to see now. Perhaps as I express my support for the Canberra Raiders' move to the Bruce Stadium, and in keeping with the style of this Assembly, I should declare my interest. I am an avid rugby league fan, I also live as close to Bruce Stadium as anybody in this town and I can easily walk to see their games rather than join the traffic crawl out to Queanbeyan.
This morning I expressed the view that I was somewhat of an expert in another field. Though I am a rugby league supporter, the state of my knees today, if nothing else, indicates that I do not think I am any great expert. Mr Stefaniak said that we have to protect the players from the synthetic running track. Judging by some of the fields I have played on, given the country areas where I have played it and the level at which I played, that would be a good surface.
Let me assure the Assembly, and Mr Stefaniak in particular, that the decision to relocate the Raiders to the Bruce Stadium was made in the first instance by the Commonwealth Government. But let me point out that the ALP in the election campaign and subsequently supported that proposal.
I understand the concern as to athletics. I have a son who is enormously keen, who jogs out to the track and makes great use of those facilities. He expresses his concern, and I understand it. But let us face the fact that the stadium is valued at some $40m and it is absolutely under-utilised. It is a marvellous resource and it is not being used. We cannot allow that to continue. We have got to use that stadium more. At present it is costing something like $300,000 a year just to keep it going, and that will go up. We have to endeavour to make it a profit-making venture. There is no suitably developed stadium in Canberra that will take what I think are termed rectangular sports - those that will fit into a rectangle on a large playing field. There is no such stadium. This will be that stadium. Do not tell me this is not a sport conscious community. It certainly is, and perhaps more so than in other areas. We have got to get more use out of that stadium.
I am informed that the Raiders and the ACT Administration spent a great deal of time looking at proposals for the redevelopment of Manuka Oval and Northbourne Oval, but they have been discounted for a whole variety of reasons, most of which I am sure you would well understand.
The Bruce Stadium will become a multipurpose venue for the maximum benefit of the ACT community, just as the indoor stadium has become. I am sure it was not always envisaged that the stadium would be the venue for indoor concerts and have elephants and horses and all sorts of things moving around inside it.
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