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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (1 September) . . Page.. 2706 ..
MS CARNELL (continuing):
Mr Speaker, this is a very exciting project. It is a major project. The basis of the project, as has been put forward, was that there would be no net cost to government. Those are the sorts of issues that are being trialled. I think members would be aware that there has been work done, such as polling people on the Federal Highway. People have forms to fill in at the airport. All sorts of work has been done with regard to the patronage figures, the track, the technology and the time frames. I have to say, Mr Kaine, that, as I understand it, the issue for lots of discussion has been the access to Sydney from Liverpool in, but I understand that negotiations or discussions are proceeding quite well with the New South Wales Government.
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister referred to the no net cost to government, which was the original basis. Given that the so-called six-month proving up period now looks like a one-and-a-half-year proving up period, can the Chief Minister tells us when was the decision made to extend that proving up period by an additional year, and does she still stand by the proposition that this will only proceed if it is at no net cost to government?
MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I am not sure that the whole process was extended. It was only in March this year that the Ministers signed the heads of agreement and agreed for the Commonwealth to take the head role in the prove up stage, so I have to say I am not sure about the extension. We were always expecting the prove up stage to come about towards the end of this year, possibly September/October, but it may be a bit later than that now.
In terms of no net cost, that certainly is still the basis of the agreement, but, from an ACT perspective, the very fast train will fundamentally change Canberra and regional New South Wales, and I will certainly be doing everything I can to ensure that the project does go ahead. It will create something like 18,000 jobs during construction and some 2,000 jobs when it is up and running. The Speedrail entity has undertaken to put the maintenance facility here in Canberra, with all of the jobs that will go with that.
Mr Speaker, this is the biggest regional infrastructure project since the Snowy Mountains scheme and that is a pretty exciting thing. I would have to say, from at least my Government's perspective, that we will do everything in our power to get this over the line.
MR QUINLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for sport and recreation. I understand that the Federal Minister for Sport, Ms Jackie Kelly, is conducting a broad-ranging national review of the Australian Institute of Sport. Is the ACT Government making a submission to that inquiry?
MR STEFANIAK
: Yes, we are. We certainly want to have input in relation to that. I have already indicated several views myself in relation to that broad-ranging review. I think it is very important that we do not lose sight of the fact that sport needs to continue after the Olympics. In fact, we need to maximise the opportunities from the Olympics, and I think there are some real issues in terms of Federal funding around that. I have already made some preliminary views known to my federal counterpart on that.
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