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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2369 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Ms Tucker said we did not have the guts to do it. It is not a question of guts; it is a question of fairness. There are other ways in which to run a balanced budget without slugging people, especially the needy. The opposition will be monitoring paid parking very closely to see what impact it has not only on the people who have to pay but also on the shopping centres. Can we expect a further increase in paid parking in other areas, like Jamison or Kippax? I hope not. But we will wait and see.

I was concerned to see removed from the budget the $500,000 for an initiative that would have greatly helped youth-the skateboard park at the old Charnwood High School site. The government trumpeted a worthwhile initiative in the Chronicle this week-$151,000 this financial year and $565,000 over four years for an outreach service for the youth of West Belconnen. I am sure that service will assist a number of needy youths. It builds on the moneys which in recent times we put into youth services around the Kippax area and services through the Ginninderra District High School.

To do that but to take away a facility that would benefit the whole 6,000 or so youth of the area is very bad indeed. I asked the Chief Minister a question on it yesterday. He said that it was a matter of reprioritisation and that it was not a priority. I am sorry, Treasurer, I disagree with that.

In the last seven years we created a number of youth facilities and skateboard parks in Gungahlin, Weston, Tuggeranong, Civic and Belconnen. The Belconnen one was state of the art at the time it was built. Mr Speaker, you may have had something to do with that in the previous government. I think a few of us might have had something to do with it a long time ago in the First Assembly. It is a good facility.

But there are 6,000-plus young people in the West Belconnen area, many of whom would have greatly benefited from a skateboard park in Charnwood. For the government to take that out is a real slap in the face not only to the youth of West Belconnen but to the citizens there as well. That is not even worrying about things like tennis. There was money for that. I was very disappointed to see what happened to the skateboard park.

I turn to housing. I was impressed by some of the points Ms Dundas made and even by some points Ms Tucker made. The budget trumpets $90-odd million in housing expenditure, up $3 million. It looks good on the face of it, until you go into the detail and look at last year's budget.

Rents are up this year by $6.2 million, but funding is down from a little over $30 million to about $27 million, down by $3.1 million. So the increase is a result of increased rents.

I commend the housing minister for his initiative in improving fire safety precautions in flat complexes and throughout ACT Housing properties. I saw in the budget papers $16 million for that over a few years. That is a fair amount of money. I do not know whether he needs that much, but it is a good initiative.

I am pleased to see the moneys allocated over a four-year period to community housing. I am pleased to see that the government aims to get community housing up to about 1,000 properties. That is something I aimed to do when I was minister in 1997.

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