Page 842 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
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public consumption. But I hope that the Attorney will continue to exercise a degree of restraint in this area and that we will not embark on that course.
The unanimous endorsement of this motion by the Assembly will reflect well on this Assembly. It will stand us in good stead. We will be joining, as the Attorney mentioned, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. I think Queensland has also moved in this direction, or is about to, and we hope that other States will join. It will be a positive step for this Assembly if this motion is unanimously carried and, because of the importance of the motion being unanimously carried, the Opposition will not be opposing the amendment that has been moved by Mr Stefaniak. Unanimous support for the basic motion is too important to risk by bothering to criticise or vote against this perhaps unfortunate and rather trivial back patting exercise. If the Government feels it is necessary to do that, we are prepared to go along with it.
Amendment agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
PUBLIC SWIMMING FACILITIES
MRS GRASSBY (12.24): I move:
That the Assembly condemns the ACT Government for its incompetent handling of the provision of public swimming facilities for the people of Canberra.
In proposing this motion I hope to highlight what has apparently become a trend with this Government, and that is that they have, for one reason or another, continued to mishandle the provision of public swimming facilities in the ACT for the people of the ACT. I should like to start by focusing on the way this Government handled the re-leasing of the Phillip swimming pool. For the people of the Woden Valley there are few accessible alternatives open to them if they would like to swim, other than using the Phillip swimming pool. Consequently, it is the responsibility of any ACT government to make sure that the provision of this recreational swimming facility remains stable and accessible to the people of the Woden Valley. Quite clearly, the bungling of the re-leasing of this facility over recent months by those opposite has not created a sense of optimism for those who use the pool.
If we look closely at the issue of the re-leasing of the pool, we find that two options were open to the Government. The first of these was to proceed with the then current leasing arrangement, which was to provide a 10-year lease. The lease under which the Phillip pool was operated since 1979 allowed for an extension of the lease after 10 years.
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