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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2964 ..

takes in the diverse range of the housing market in the ACT, these plans just will not work.

There was no funding for retrofitting of public housing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and there are no funding measures to encourage private landlords to retrofit properties with energy efficiency measures or appliances. There was also too little money to implement the new water strategy. There was absolutely nothing for new water recycling infrastructure. There is no identified funding for capital works to reduce the flow of stormwater into our lakes and divert this water for irrigating our playing fields and parks. It seems such a simple idea. We have concerns about the impact of the drought on our ovals. If we could turn water run-off back onto those ovals, it would be a win-win situation.

Speaking of ovals, this budget contained ongoing expenditure for the maintenance of Phillip oval. I do not think we fully appreciate how that cost will be forgone. The Treasurer and I are aware that a lot of work needs to be done at Phillip oval. We were out there for the AFL match a couple of weeks ago. I am very concerned about whether the money allocated will be enough to bring that oval up to standard.

There were some positive initiatives in the environment section of this budget. However, again we had to raise concerns about the work of the office of the Commissioner for the Environment and how that office is being supported to monitor the state of the environment in the ACT. It needs to be recognised that we should not be looking at the state of the environment in the ACT only when a report is due. It should be ongoing. The office should be supported to do that on an ongoing basis.

The Department of Urban Services also covers the area of arts, and there was an increase in the arts budget for arts grants. Through the estimates process, we learnt that that funding will be paid out through arts organisations already receiving money from the ACT government. Programs that are currently running will soon increase. I do not deny that those programs needed support; they were running on shoestring budgets. However, there are many other arts organisations out there not receiving any support at all or very minimal support. We need to look at how we prioritise our expenditure across the board and see that we are able to support the diverse range of arts here in the ACT.

We are still waiting to see where the government is going in terms of its consultation as called on by this Assembly in relation to music—live music in particular. There was no money in this budget to support the local music industry. However, there was money to turn the feasibility study on the Belconnen cultural centre into a design for the Belconnen cultural centre. I am delighted to see this expenditure finally happening. The people of Belconnen have been working on this for a very long time. We have had a consultation about what we would like to see there. There is a lot of support in the community for a cultural centre. There has been a lot of debate over where to put that. It is time that we buckled down and moved forward.

I will quickly mention what is happening in our libraries. We have a number of libraries going through refurbishments and increases. It will be a little while before we see how that will impact on their operations. I note that the government is providing ongoing consultations in relation to the Link project, and I hope that the remaining issues in relation to the transfer or the move of the Civic Library can be worked out harmoniously.

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