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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1149 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Minister is feeling benign and he is going to satisfy Mr Corbell.

MR KAINE: He will never be satisfied with the answer, because he has his mind made up. If I do not answer the way he wants me to, he is not going to be satisfied. My understanding, Mr Speaker, is that a presentation was made this morning by ACTEW to those unions that could potentially be affected by this, and those unions are satisfied that the pricing tribunal decision will not result in job losses. Does that suit you, Mr Corbell?

MR OSBORNE: My question is to the Minister for the Arts. I hope you note that this is my third one, Mr Humphries. Earlier this year, Minister, with great fanfare you revealed the final plans for the Tuggeranong Community Arts Centre. At that time you praised its innovative architectural design and the consultation process that had gone into that design by the Bureau of Arts and a number of local community groups. Minister, could you inform the Assembly which of those groups helped to approve a design that contained no furniture, no heating, no lighting, no sound equipment and no proper flooring?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, let me say, first of all, that obviously Mr Osborne has now reconciled himself with Mr Mico, with whom he had several highly public and spectacular clashes in the course of last year.

Mr Osborne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I ask Mr Humphries to withdraw that. I have had no public clashes with Mr Mico. I get on quite well with the man.

MR SPEAKER: You may make a personal explanation later if you wish.

MR HUMPHRIES: If he says he is good friends with Mr Mico, I will take his word for that. Mr Speaker, it was made abundantly clear to the people who were involved in the Tuggeranong Community Arts Centre that there was a budget to work to in this process; that there was $1.75m - a figure actually settled by a committee of this Assembly, as I recall, for the Tuggeranong Community Arts Centre. The decision was made that we should be able to proceed within that budget.

The so-called drawbacks to the centre that Mr Osborne says are a result of having to stick to that budget are exaggerated considerably. Of course there will be flooring on the floor of the centre.

Mr Osborne: It is concrete.

MR HUMPHRIES: There are lots of buildings in this town that have concrete floors, Mr Osborne. What the Tuggeranong Community Arts Association wants is a very expensive sprung floor. Even the people at Gorman House who teach dance do not have a sprung floor. There are other sorts of floors between concrete and a sprung floor which you might be able to get by with. I am in discussions with that organisation.

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