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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4108 ..

MS McRAE (1.36 am): Mr Speaker, they miss the point, of course, and twist and turn. Let us get serious. Why bother producing a 10-year plan? Why bother claiming extensive consultation? It is even worse when I hear that Mr Lamont funded futsal for three years to the level that he did. It clearly shows that this nonsense about a 10-year plan is just that - nonsense. That is what I am most aggrieved about. They give us a sham of some sort of 10-year plan, of some sort of overview about facilities, of some sort of considered planning about sport, of some sort of idea that they, and only they, understand about sport in the ACT. When it comes to the crunch, it is not worth the paper it is written on. When it comes to the crunch, the grammar in the response that they give does not even make any sense. That is what the problem is.

I could not care less whether futsal is there or not in the end. I could not care less whether Mrs Carnell wants to take risks. That is not the point. The point is that this is a Minister who, one year, gives me a 10-year plan - according to this, there has been an initial questionnaire, a draft strategic plan, a plan sent to all peak bodies for comment and additional face-to-face meetings - who gave me all of that last year, hand on heart, saying that this is a fantastic 10-year plan, and then has the audacity to stand up this year and just say that arbitrarily, out of the sky, without any planning or forethought, just like that, $250,000 can be spent. That is my grievance. That is what is wrong. That is what is wrong with the sporting communities management. We cannot have faith that a 10-year plan that is supposed to have had this level of consultation will yield the possibility of a futsal stadium. That is what is bad about this budget and bad about the management of this - - -

Mrs Carnell: It is not a futsal stadium; it is a multipurpose - - -

MS McRAE: Oh! It is a multipurpose outdoor stadium. You know that its main purpose is to distract traffic driving past and to provide a little level of amusement. Give me a go! What have I seen there? I have seen futsal and a bit of rain. A multipurpose outdoor stadium!

Mrs Carnell: The police games.

MS McRAE: We have yet to see it all. Okay. When we have it all there, we will have it all there. That is all the worse. This is a 10-year plan, where every peak group was consulted. Did each of the peak groups say, "We want a multipurpose outdoor stadium at the edge of the lake."? No. Then why bother with this sham? Why bother with this sham of a 10-year plan? Why do you not simply come out and honestly say that, whenever Mrs Carnell has a good idea, the money will be found, and too bad about priorities, too bad about peak groups, too bad about consultation, too bad about 10-year plans? That is what is bothering me. What I am complaining about is that you simply do not understand. You want to twist and turn. You want to call me names. You can do whatever you like. Put it in front of the sporting communities. Do whatever you please; but do not give me this nonsense of a well and thoroughly prepared 10-year plan and, as you did last year and this year, come to me and say "a multipurpose outdoor stadium". No-one, but no-one, in this extensive level of consultation had ever even thought about it. It is outrageous.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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