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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 9 Hansard (18 November) . . Page.. 2612 ..

MR STEFANIAK: No. The Government was happy to indicate, "That is the bucket of money which we will provide for those upgrades and it is up to you, the sports. If you think there is a better way of doing it than what has been proposed in the past, you tell us". That is the basis they are proceeding on. They are agreeable to that. I think that is a sensible arrangement, and they are obviously doing a lot of work on it. I am hopeful that they will report soon. At the Rams presentation dinner I spoke with John Livy. Certainly they are hopeful of bringing something to government as soon as they can. Obviously the initial timeframe was way too short. I do think it is important that they get it right.

MS TUCKER: My question to the Chief Minister relates to the relocation of Ainslie after-school care. When I asked you questions on this in September, you were confident that replacement facilities could be of a high standard. Could you confirm to the Assembly that the costs are now estimated to be between $100,000 and $150,000, and could you inform the Assembly where this money is coming from?

MS CARNELL: I told the Assembly that, as part of the relocation of Craft ACT to Ainslie public school, both Ainslie after-school care and an English as a second language program would be relocated and would be found new homes. The reason for the delay till the end of the year in moving Craft ACT was to ensure that the timeframes were appropriate and that Ainslie after-school care would not have to move until the beginning of the new school year. I also undertook that wherever they went it would be a place that did reach appropriate standards. I do not know what the cost of relocation will be, but minor capital works budgets are used for these sorts of purposes all the time. As I am sure Ms Tucker would know, there is a minor capital works budget which handles relocations and those sorts of things during the year.

MS TUCKER: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. So the money is coming from minor capital works. That is good. That is an answer. Thank you. You also stated in September, in answer to my question, that the reason that you were feeling the need to move Craft ACT was that it was an election promise, so I am interested to know also whether it was envisaged that far in advance. I have not actually been aware of this or heard this, but I believe that this is the case if you say so. If it was envisaged that early that you would in fact be doing this, did you account in the budget for the costs of relocating Ainslie after-school care and the cost of refurbishment of the buildings for Craft ACT? If so, where would I find that?

MS CARNELL: I think I have just said that there are two costs. One is the cost of the relocation of the current people who are in the Ainslie public school. As I said, they will be funded probably out of minor capital works. Those sorts of amounts of money are available in various parts of the budget. I think I also indicated previously that the staged refurbishment of the building would be funded also from minor capital works or capital works programs over the next few years. Ms Tucker asked whether it was an election promise. Mr Humphries, who was the Minister, put out a media release on the issue.

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