Page 311 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 1990
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work would be in progress. At that time the resources were available within the design budget in our ACT public works, so that we could go in that direction and to commence the design work.
The position has changed dramatically. Mr Kaine has not denied the validity of the document, which is marked "B"; it is an attachment to the documents distributed last night. You will see that in relation to the forward design the first two items have been removed from that document. The first one was the Tuggeranong pool and the second one was the Olympic pool - "to refurbish and bubble" as it was described in the first document.
Mr Speaker, those are the facts. Clearly, the Labor Government under Rosemary Follett was moving - and there is evidence of that movement - towards a firm commitment for the construction of the pool in Tuggeranong in the 1990-91 budget year. On the other hand, there is evidence now before this chamber and before the Tuggeranong community that the Liberal Government in the ACT has abandoned Tuggeranong and has removed the Tuggeranong pool from its program.
MR JENSEN (3.51), by leave: Mr Speaker, it is interesting that Mr Whalan has not substantiated his assertions. What he has just done is provide a couple of documents to the house without any clear sourcing of them. They are just pages. There is no indication as to where these documents have come from. He has clearly misrepresented the positions of both the previous Follett Government and the Alliance Government. This is something that Mr Whalan has been doing with considerable panache in the last few weeks. It is incredible, Mr Speaker, and it is misrepresentation of the facts of the highest order.
It is submitted that he should be required to retract his statements publicly unless he is prepared to come up with the rest of the documents to substantiate the documents that he tabled last night at a public meeting. I suggest that the Alliance Government does have a commitment to the pool, a commitment that Mr Kaine has already stated. What we have is a commitment under local delegation to engage a consultant to undertake the necessary predesign and costing work - a consultant that Mr Whalan was quite happy to operate.
Let me comment on an assertion that Mr Whalan made to give an indication as to the validity of the sorts of statements that this man opposite makes. Mr Whalan said that at the meeting last night a proposal was carried for an Olympic-standard pool with diving. Let me quote from a letter from the chairman of the committee that Mr Whalan refers to. It is a letter signed Peter Muir, President, on behalf of the Tuggeranong Pool Consultative Committee and it refers to statements about Mr Whalan. I quote:
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