Page 1050 - Week 04 - Thursday, 18 June 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO: A high school is there. I can tell you that for sure. Three possible sites to move to were identified, and the club said that it believed that the one behind the Kambah Fire Station was the best. The club held a meeting on site with the planner in November, when a timeframe for the move was outlined. The club was given to believe that the move would be accomplished before Christmas. They were told that the Government would be able to arrange something with the servicing of the land. Importantly, the club was told that the Land Division would pay for sewerage, water and access to the boundary.
In February they received a letter from the Planning Authority asking them to apply for a lease. In March the club had a meeting with officers from the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning - in particular, Mr John Malouf and Mr Gary Munday, I am advised - about an application and a $625 fee, which they duly paid. They paid their money and made the application to lease the land at Kambah. On 8 May this year the club received a letter from the Planning Authority again, setting out the development requirements for the site. These included preliminary costings, sewerage to the boundary, $26,200, and water to the boundary, $13,800. The letter asked the club for their advice on their financial capacity to meet these costs. The letter came with the helpful advice that no funding was available, of course, from the Office of Sport and Recreation.
The problem, Madam Speaker, is that, since being told that the club would be moving, no maintenance has been done on the old site in Wanniassa, and the club is now left for about half the year without any facilities whatsoever. Quite obviously, the club wishes to point out that it never asked to move in the first place, but moved at the suggestion of the office to ease what was an obvious problem, with neighbours complaining. The complaints never involved the club's activities themselves. Wanniassa, I am advised, was one of the original BMX tracks in Canberra, and its members have represented Australia in national championships. Membership is well over 125, which means the involvement of more than 300 mums and dads and relatives. The club is now losing membership as they have no facility.
After indications being made of the move to Kambah, the club then investigated the possibility of hosting the Australian national championships in 1995. The championships were last held in Canberra in 1987, Madam Speaker, when a $33,000 grant was approved to build facilities. The tourism authorities estimate that this event injected about $6m into the Canberra community. The club has received a favourable response and if the facilities are available the national championships may come to Canberra in 1995. But they cannot pay $30,000 or $40,000 to develop the site. Quite obviously, they need help.
They in fact did meet with the Government on Monday. I must thank Ms Ellis for organising that meeting with the Government. I did advise them, by the way, to go and see Ms Ellis, my fellow Tuggeranong resident who is part of the Government. They met with the Government on Monday to seek help - - -
Mr Lamont: So that she could do all the work. It saves you doing it.
MR DE DOMENICO: No. I will not reply to the interjection; it was wrong anyway. They met with the Government on Monday to seek help and to get a resolution of the problem. The Government's solution now, I am advised, is to try to find $5,000 - - -
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