Page 101 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 1990
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What this Government should be about in its consideration of an important sports and recreation facility for the people of Canberra is the development of a healthy Canberra and the safeguard against the sorts of diseases which can be prevented by exercise and proper recreation facilities being provided for the people of Tuggeranong. The people opposite in Government have given no commitment as to when that might occur.
Mr Collaery, through his crystal ball, some time in the future imagines that there might be a swimming pool in Tuggeranong. But that is about the most we can get out of the Government at this stage, not one thing more. I must say that what Mr Collaery said flies in the face of what the MLA for Tuggeranong, Mrs Robyn Nolan, said in the Valley View on February 7. This would be a bit of a worry for Mr Jensen too, because he apparently does not have any representation out in the Tuggeranong Valley. Mrs Nolan has quite expertly snitched the ground from under his feet.
Mrs Nolan: Read this week's issue.
MR BERRY: Have you given it to him this week? Anyway, the pool is allegedly high on the Government's agenda, but Mr Kaine will make no admissions in relation to where it sits on the Government's agenda. Mr Collaery has endorsed the fact that the development of a pool in Tuggeranong is a long way down the track. But the good thing about it is that the Labor Opposition has flushed them out as it has done on a number of other issues. They need to be flushed out in the open on most issues, and, of course, you would be getting a bit edgy, Norm.
Mr Jensen: I am not getting edgy; do not worry.
MR BERRY: Your commitment to the people of the Tuggeranong Valley is being viewed as waning in the light of the lack of a commitment to put this important facility in place. It is the kids of the community who get the greatest benefit from community facilities such as swimming pools. Well, the kids that might get the benefit will be well into their adulthood before this Government puts a pool in Tuggeranong. One of the advantages that the people of Tuggeranong have now seen slip away from them was a facility that their children could use to develop sporting prowess, which might one day have led them to a position where they could participate along with our great athletes who were in New Zealand just recently. The swimmers did exceptionally well there.
Any potential amongst the children of Tuggeranong to be developed towards elite athlete stage will be lost because of the refusal of this Government to give the people of Tuggeranong a date. Of course, members of the Government will be embarrassed because they have been flushed out in the open on the issue and they are not in a position to give a commitment on a date or a future for the people of Tuggeranong for this sort of facility.
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