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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4410 ..

Mr Stanhope: Just leave it to us, Bill. We have it under control.

MR QUINLAN: That is almost a non-sequitur.

Mr Stanhope: Why don't we do better than we have already done?

MR QUINLAN: We had the World Cup and we had the Masters Games and they were calendar items. I would be very happy to run the World Cup again next year if it was available, but it is not entirely within our province to decide whether we have the World Cup or no. We have now had our second Masters Games and it was a bigger and better Masters Games than the original. I am very pleased about that and very pleased to have put in place rugby celebrations-

Members interjecting-

MR SPEAKER: Order, members of the opposition!

MR QUINLAN: We are very happy to have managed the World Cup rugby to the maximum. I think that Canberra had effectively the highest ticket sales or highest proportion of attendance.

Mr Smyth: It is a good stadium to hold it in.

MR QUINLAN: It is a good stadium. Let me, as an aside, say that I believe that Canberra Stadium is a good stadium. It only takes 25,000 but it is a good stadium. It has some faults, which were identified by the Auditor-General when he said that a lot of the money that was invested in it was invested for the benefit of corporate bodies and not for Joe Public, but that was a sign of the times then. It could actually do a bit better for the punter, rather than the corporates.

However, the problem with the stadium was never the stadium itself; it was the appalling way that the upgrades were handled. We were always very careful to explain to the public, or to anyone who wanted to listen, the difference between the stadium itself and-well, I will not go any further-the way it was done. It is really the way it was done that is-

Mr Stanhope: It is a pity they broke the law.

MR QUINLAN: Yes. That is an event in Canberra's history that will take a long time to be forgotten. Mr Stefaniak, if the World Cup rugby wants to come back next year, we will very happily have it.

Mr Smyth: What are you doing? You are the minister.

MR QUINLAN: Go and talk to the people involved. They are much happier with the way that they are operating now than they were.

Mr Stefaniak: They are concerned, Minister. They are actually bemoaning the events we do not have.

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