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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4837 ..

MR WOOD: I did not hear Mr Humphries.

MR SPEAKER: He said that there must be no preamble, and I am backing him.

MR WOOD: We see much body language from over there, Mr Humphries, that is usually explicable. Mr Kaine, increasingly when applications are sought, not just in Urban Services, a $25 payment is required to cover a police security check. My concern is that if there is a very large number of applicants they should not all have to forward that $25, because in the end only a very few might be successful. I would ask that you inform the Assembly when that $25 is required. Is it later in the process so that a very large number of applicants - and I understand that that was the case on this occasion - do not have to fork out $25 for no result?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, again, I do not know the details. I will get the details and answer that question fully. I was quite critical personally when that $25 payment up front for a security check was applied in another department to applicants who probably had no opportunity of getting a job at all at the end of the day. I would hope that my own department and the agency working for me have taken that to heart, but I will get the details and answer fully.

MS HORODNY: My question is directed to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Kaine. Over the last couple of days the residents of Hampton Circuit in Yarralumla have found in their letterboxes a letter from Canberra Urban Parks asking for their views on what is being called an exciting new program being developed by the ACT Government called Adopt a Park. Under this Adopt a Park scheme, community groups and businesses can enter into an agreement to provide basic maintenance for a park and, in return, the group can alter the layout of the park. The community would supposedly be consulted about any changes. The letter also said that a local investment and residential group has expressed an interest in adopting the park bounded by Hampton Circuit and that this letter was to seek residents' views on this proposal. Minister, this scheme appears to be a grand plan to reduce government responsibility for our public parks by handing them to whichever business wants to take them over. My question is: Who is the local investment and residential group referred to in this particular letter? Why has this park been chosen for this scheme? What does this group intend to do to this park?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, first of all, I would have to say that this suggestion that people might take up some responsibility for the care and maintenance of parks is still only embryonic. It flows from the same consideration that was given to our highways. We have moved to the idea of asking individuals and organisations to sponsor a section of highway by keeping it free of litter. The same sort of thinking went into the notion of asking people whether they wanted to adopt a roundabout and plant it with flowers and maintain it. It is very much part of getting the community to become involved and to make some commitment to their environment. The idea has been considered and it has not yet had the endorsement of the Government; it has been dealt with in the administration. That is the notion that public parks, or some of them, might possibly fall

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