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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2541 ..

MS CARNELL: With regard to the turf, I have to say I am not a turf expert, and I suspect Mr Berry is not either. I have enough trouble growing any grass at the front of my home let alone knowing what is appropriate or not appropriate for Bruce Stadium. So I can guarantee to those opposite that I did not, I promise, have anything to do with choosing which turf we might use; and I put money on it, Mr Speaker, nor did anybody else in this Assembly unless we have a turf expert, a grass expert, in our midst. I suspect that is not the case.

The decision to go ahead and play the Raiders' semi-final in Canberra was done in consultation with SOCOG. They were in agreement with that approach. They accepted that there was no need to start relaying turf at Bruce Stadium until after the Raiders' semi-final. The Raiders' semi-final actually made no difference whatsoever to the need for laying the turf. The turf was fairly badly damaged at Bruce Stadium over a fairly heavy usage season, with both the Brumbies and the Raiders doing very nicely and staying in the competition, which was great. We had a particularly bad weekend when the Raiders played in snow, and we had the Brumbies' semi-final which caused significant damage to the turf. From that moment on there was, I have to say, probably no doubt at all that the whole stadium would have to be relaid.

It is important to put this into context. The MCG will totally relay their surface after their grand final on Saturday. Stadium Australia will completely relay after the opening-

Mr Berry: Are they using Cairns grass?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I do not think this is acceptable.

MR SPEAKER: Please continue. I am listening.

MS CARNELL: Stadium Australia will completely relay after the opening ceremony and before the athletics five days later. The agreement to relay after the Raiders' semi-final was agreed to by SOCOG as being a reasonable approach. On that basis, that is the approach we took.

Schools-Thefts of Bikes

MR OSBORNE: My question is to the Minister for Education, Mr Stefaniak. Minister, as you are probably aware, there have been a number of complaints to my office regarding bikes locked in school bike racks being stolen.

Mr Stanhope: Scaremongerer. That is scaremongering.

MR OSBORNE: I will have to ask my campaign manager to get it on the front page of the Chronicle this week. Minister, could you inform me what options are open to these families to be reimbursed for the property stolen from school grounds? Does the government have insurance for this type of theft; and if not, why not?

MR STEFANIAK: Basically the education department and the schools take as much care as they possibly can. We have had a few incidents where, in fact, one of the thieves used bolt cutters to get in and take kids' bikes.

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