Page 4420 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
country. Of course, thanks very much to the Liberals over there, we started off the batting 1,000 units down. As I indicated just a moment ago in response to Ms MacDonald, we have recovered a lot of that.
I can inform the house, with respect to energy efficiency initiatives, that housing is embarking upon a trial of some energy efficiency treatment for externally located water heaters, which will reduce carbon emissions and reduce the use of electricity, and therefore reduce the cost of power consumption for the tenants, who are in receipt of rebates anyway. That trial will ensue. I am hopeful that it will be successful. We are getting on with looking at energy efficiency initiatives in housing. Those people across the road did nothing except sell off our stock.
Sport and recreation—hockey
MS PORTER: Mr Speaker, my question, through you, is to the Minister for Sport and Recreation. This weekend is the start of the women’s hockey champions trophy tournament, which will see the international spotlight on the ACT. Could you please inform the Assembly of the investment that the ACT government has made in local hockey that has enabled this significant event to be held in Canberra?
MR QUINLAN: I thank Ms Porter for the question. The champions trophy is the Federation of International Hockey’s premier annual tournament. It brings together the top six male and top six female teams in the world. In September 2002, Hockey ACT submitted a bid to Hockey Australia to host the 2005 tournament, both men’s and women’s. Hockey Australia fully supported the ACT’s bid. In December 2004, the hockey federation announced that Australia would host the 2005 women’s champions trophy.
We were enthusiastic for that to be held in Canberra. It was fairly clear that, for that to happen, there needed to be facility upgrades, which were beyond the immediate scope of the hockey, centre in the ACT and which would, therefore, require financial support from the government. And we have provided that support. We initially provided some $850,000 to upgrade a couple of the surfaces there—one sand-based pitch and one international standard water-based pitch.
In the 2004-05 budget, a further $4½ million was set aside to bring the facility up to the international standard. That money has been spent over 2004-05. These works include construction of the northern grandstand, an upgrade of the media facilities and improvements to parking and surrounds. As well as providing for the tournament, these works will address the ongoing physical needs of the facility over the next decade or so. The project came in on time and pretty close to budget.
The ACT investment was complemented by a federal government regional partnership grant of a princely $253,00. If you had seen Gary Humphries announcing that, you would have thought he had bought them a new hockey centre, himself. Nevertheless, the lion’s share of the funding that has gone into the upgrade of the hockey centre has been provided through the ACT budget.
The 2005 women’s champions trophy will be held from 26 November to 4 December. It includes teams from the Netherlands, Argentina, China, Korea, Germany and Australia.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .