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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 5010 ..

MS TUCKER: Thank you. I think you did say that you had done an analysis of the social impact, but not the environmental impact. Could the Assembly see that social impact analysis?

MR CORBELL: No, Mr Speaker, I didn't say the government had done a social impact analysis. I said the government had taken account of the range of issues that were pertinent to any decision around granting land to Aldi. We took account of what it would mean in terms of impact on local centres and impact on group centres, and we took account generally of employment issues and environmental issues. For example, we know that Aldi encourages an approach where you have to pay for your plastic bag or your shopping trolley.

Mr Speaker, those are all things that we took account of in making a decision to direct-grant land to Aldi, but there is no specific document that I can provide to Ms Tucker such as a social impact assessment.

Rugby world cup

MS MacDONALD: My question is addressed to the Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming, Mr Quinlan. Minister, yesterday you released a report on the economic benefits of Canberra hosting the rugby world cup. Could you inform the Assembly of the success that the tournament has been for Canberra?

MR QUINLAN: Thank you, Ms MacDonald. Of course I can. In fact, we did release yesterday a summary of the costs and benefits-

Mr Stefaniak: It's old news then, isn't it, Ted?

MR QUINLAN: But worth repeating, Mr Stefaniak, just in case you missed it. The first important point to make is that every ticket to the Canberra Stadium, for four matches, was actually sold-all 96,000.

Mrs Burke: Good idea, that stadium.

MR QUINLAN: I will get to the stadium later. However, as is often the case, not everyone turned up, but there was an attendance of 86,415 overall, an average attendance of over 20,000 per game. Research shows that, of those attending, 36 per cent were from interstate and 11 per cent were from overseas. This is a vast improvement on the original estimates of 13,000 visitors from interstate and 7,000 from overseas.

The overall cost to the taxpayer of hosting the rugby world cup is officially $941,000. I would be the first to admit that it probably cost a bit more, with some providing their normal services and not particularly costing it to the world cup, but that is a pretty good indicator and comparator for other events. Our research shows that the investment return was $7 million spent in the town. Now, it depends on whose economic multiplier you like to use-if you had the one out of the dragway feasibility study it would be an enormous figure-but we will just take the $7 million, which is considered conservative. That was certainly a very pleasing result for the ACT.

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