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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2738 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

In June last year the club completed the departmental preliminary assessment procedures required of them and look forward to completing the purchase of this oval. I understand that after I asked a question of Mr Humphries a number of months ago the club presented a proposal to your Government and since then have had several meetings with the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister or you, as the Minister for Sport, to discuss their proposal and secure some kind of agreement. I have been assured by other members of your party - when I say "members of your party" I mean members here in the Assembly - that the final decision on the club's proposal is yours to make. Mr Stefaniak, is this the case? If so, when can the club realistically expect an answer?

MR STEFANIAK: The short answer to that, Mr Osborne, is basically no, it is not. You have had discussions with members of my party and so have I. We are very well aware of the proposal. It is a very good proposal that I think will do a lot for sport not only in the valley but in Canberra. There are a number of issues which we have been working on over the last few months. One of them is basically the question of what you do when you get a valuation from the Australian Valuation Office. That is something that is binding on my colleague Mr Humphries. There is nothing that he himself can do in relation to that. It is also beyond my role. The matter is currently before the Chief Minister, who is looking at it to see what, if anything, she can do in relation to it. You are right. It is certainly something that the Government is well aware of. It is something the Government has been working on, and no doubt there will be an answer forthcoming shortly.

MS McRAE: My question is to the Minister for Sport, Mr Stefaniak. Is it true that your Government has loaned the Canberra Cannons $300,000? Why was this money loaned? What were the conditions of the loan? Can any sporting organisation that needs money be loaned money in this way?

MRS CARNELL: As Treasurer - - -

Ms McRae: The Minister for Sport does not know?

MRS CARNELL: He does. It just happens that issues such as this fall within the Treasury portfolio. No, it is not true that the ACT Government has loaned the Cannons $300,000. What the ACT Government has done is guarantee $300,000. It has given a guarantee on that sort of amount of money, in the same way as we have done previously with other sporting teams and in the same way as the previous Labor Government supported the Raiders when they needed a bit of a hand. What we are talking about here is no dollars out of the ACT coffers whatsoever but just going as guarantor for $300,000 for the Cannons. My understanding is that that particular guarantee will expire in the year 2000. It goes for only two years.

MS McRAE: Mr Speaker, my question included what the conditions of that guarantee, rather than loan, were. I accept the difference. What were the conditions? Over the last 21/2 years, how many other sporting groups have received similar guarantees?

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