Page 325 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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MR WHALAN (Minister for Industry, Employment and Education) (4.11): This issue is fundamentally concerned with Canberra's identity as a significant Australian city. This morning the Assembly debated at some length the need to change Canberra's image as a stuffy, static community full of politicians, great buildings and monuments. In fact, this Assembly agreed this morning "to support sensible measures to ensure better promotion of the ACT as a tourist destination, and balanced development of the ACT's tourism infrastructure".
The expansion of the role of the Bruce Stadium as Canberra's foremost sporting venue is a perfect example of the application of this policy. Given the clear support for that policy expressed in this morning's debate, I have been surprised at the negative attitude and the general tone of some of this afternoon's remarks. This issue is not about the Canberra Raiders. It is about the Bruce Stadium and its role in Canberra's community and tourism infrastructure.
I think that this matter of public importance could have been more appropriately worded to talk about the implications of the upgrading and acquisition of the $40m Bruce Stadium as a territorial asset for use as a multipurpose sporting venue. Then we would have been near the mark and would have been able to have had a constructive discussion about it.
The expansion of the role of the Bruce Stadium is perfectly consistent with our aim to promote Canberra's role as the centre of an integrated tourist region. In that context the overall interests of the region should transcend the particular interests of local communities within it. The games played by the Raiders at Seiffert Oval regularly attract crowds which exceed Queanbeyan's population. Surveys show that up to 70 per cent of that crowd regularly consist of Canberra residents. Anyone who has driven through Queanbeyan at a time when one of these games has finished would be well aware of that fact: the roads back into Canberra are choked with traffic.
I am confident that the use of Bruce Stadium will attract bigger crowds for Canberra and the region creating a clear impact on our tourist industry. The promotion of Bruce Stadium as a significant national venue will provide a clear attraction for other sports to use the facility. This point has been raised by several speakers in the misapprehension that this is a sole Raiders' facility.
In my capacity as Minister for sport and with responsibility for the Bruce Stadium, I have had discussions with codes that will use the Bruce Stadium as a national venue. Those codes include Mr Stefaniak's rugby union which has written endorsing this proposal and expressing support for the upgrading of Bruce Stadium as a national sporting venue. I have had support from ACTAFL,
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