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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2540 ..

Bruce Stadium-Olympic Football

MR SPEAKER: I call Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. What about that person you set up to knock Harold off? My question is to the Chief Minister. Why did the government allow the hirers of Bruce Stadium to breach the period the stadium would be required for the purposes of Olympic soccer, resulting now in additional wasteful expense of $400,000 in relation to the tropical grass that has been imported to add to the expenditure of the stadium project-up to around about $70 million if you include the Olympics-and at the same time risking the loss of Olympic soccer? Why did you do this?

Ms Carnell: I cannot quite understand the question.

MR BERRY: Why did you put soccer at risk? Why did you allow the hirers of the Bruce Stadium to breach the period the stadium would be required for the purposes of Olympic soccer? It is pretty simple.

MS CARNELL: So that the Raiders could play their semi-final in Canberra.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, do you have a supplementary?

MR BERRY: Yes, I do have a supplementary.

Ms Carnell: Would you have sent them to Sydney, Wayne? Would you have said, "No, Raiders, go to Sydney"?

Mr Stanhope: That is what you said in the contract.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry is asking a supplementary.

MR BERRY: Is the Chief Minister the only one in Canberra who has not noticed that in the wintertime the grass takes a little bit longer to grow? Or is she just longing, as the song goes, for the green, green grass of home-the good old Queensland grass? Or did we buy the grass in Cairns because it grows more quickly up there? Or was it just true that there was a simple typo in the scheme of things-somebody typed "Cairnsturf" instead of "Canturf"?

MR SPEAKER: Four questions have been asked and three of them are out of order.

MS CARNELL: The decision to play the Raiders' semi-final in Canberra was not a difficult one. I am fascinated to know that Mr Berry and those opposite would have suggested that the Raiders play a semi-final somewhere else. It seems like an amazing approach.

Mr Stanhope: No, you did. You did when you signed the contract. It is your contract.

MS CARNELL: Oh, Mr Speaker. They have been interjecting the whole time.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister is answering a question.

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