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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 936 ..

Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: my supplementary question was very specific. I asked the minister whether he believed the provision of a single ASO2 officer was sufficient support for LAPACs.

Mr Humphries: He just answered that question.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Kambah adventure playground-burst water main

MS TUCKER: My question to Mr Smyth concerns a burst water main in Kambah adventure playground on 12 March. I am sure that the minister is aware of this because people in my office contacted his office trying to seek resolution of the problem. Basically, a water main burst in the playground sometime in the early hours of 12 March and it was reported to ActewAGL at 7.30 am. ActewAGL staff denied that it was their responsibility to deal with the problem and it was only after many phone calls that an employee of Totalcare went to site at 7.30 pm and turned off the water. I was contacted by a neighbour who was very distressed about the situation because the force of the water had left a hole about eight feet wide and, in the middle, about five foot deep. Basically, he felt that children in the area were particularly at risk of drowning.

There were communications between the minister's office and my office the next day. They continued right through the day and at about 6.30 in the evening I finally rang ActewAGL who told me it was not their job. They told me to ring Totalcare. I rang Totalcare and they told me it was not their job. I rang CityScape. They told me it was not their job, it was ActewAGL's, at which point I said, "Okay, I am going there with a spade to help my neighbour fill the hole." This neighbour had been watching the hole of water all the afternoon because he was so fearful about what could happen.

My question to you minister is: why are these lines of responsibility so unclear that children were put at risk to this degree, and what have you done about it?

MR SMYTH: Ms Tucker did ring my office concerning this matter and I would thank her for doing so when things are not seemingly working well. There is occasionally some overlap in which areas of infrastructure are governed by which body. I think that is unacceptable. It should be quite clear and unambiguous and I have asked my office to follow up to make sure that this does not occur again.

MR TUCKER: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. It was not going away at all and the minister did not get back to my office. My supplementary question is: who was responsible?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I am not aware of what the determination was on who was responsible. There are different pieces of infrastructure that the different bodies are responsible for. I will seek more information for the member.

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