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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 952 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the Government has spent a large amount of money in Gungahlin. Over the last few years Gungahlin has soaked up, quite appropriately, a large amount of the money the Government has put into the capital works budget to put in place the infrastructure to support the community, to support lifestyle and to support employment in Gungahlin, which we will continue to do, as is appropriate.

MR WOOD: My question is to the Minister for sport. It is about the old Bruce Stadium seats. Minister, what happened to them? Were they promised to the upgraded Manuka Oval at a price of $10 each? If this was the case, did the Government renege on that arrangement?

MR STEFANIAK: I thank the member for the question. I think you will see, Mr Wood, if you go to Manuka - I assume you go there; if you have not been, you should go and have a look - a whole lot of seats there which have come from Bruce Stadium. ACT Cricket wanted some extra seats there. I think some might have been sold elsewhere and there are some discussions going on between ACT Cricket and the Government, and we will see what we can do. I understand that some seats have been sold to other sports and have been disposed of, but there is some discussion - it is not so much contention - in relation to ACT Cricket wanting some more seats. If you have a look at some parts of Manuka Oval, you will notice some extra seats, although not very many, Mr Wood. I think that might well be the problem. But if you do go to Manuka you will see a considerable amount of old Bruce Stadium seating there.

Mr Wood: Did they get all they were promised?

MR STEFANIAK: I am not quite sure on that, Mr Wood, but they certainly got a very significant number. There is some problem in relation to some seating they did want there from Bruce Stadium. I think that seating has gone elsewhere. I am delighted that the redevelopment of Manuka is going on apace. Obviously, they will not be able to get all the seating they wanted from Bruce Stadium, but the development is proceeding. That is despite the fact that there is some doubt as to where the Comets might be playing next year. Hopefully, they will be in the national competition. There is some excellent lobbying going on on their behalf.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, may I add some further information to that?

MR SPEAKER: You may.

MS CARNELL: I had a discussion with ACT Cricket on this issue a few days ago. It is not an issue of the number of seats available; it is the types of seats available. Manuka needs seats with a different back from the ones available from Bruce Stadium. We still have quite a lot of seats that could be moved to Manuka, but the problem is that, to put them into Manuka, Manuka would have to change the lie of the stands to attach them. To change the lie of the stands would be more expensive, according to ACT Cricket, than buying new seats.

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