Page 5470 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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I do not have the amounts for this year—that was not in the press release—but if you go to the annual reports of 2011 you can see some of the sums provided. For example, the community festival in Tuggeranong was provided $29,000. Woden was provided $19,000. That is great, but it just seems odd that Tuggeranong would be provided $29,000 and Weston Creek not one cent. I think that is a disparity that needs to be explained, and certainly explained to the community.
I have a little bit of deja vu here. I remind members how hard we had to fight for a master plan for the Weston group centre. I moved a motion for a master plan in November last year and the government and the Greens rejected it. The argument was about priorities, as it is here tonight. Mr Barr, in his role then as planning minister, said:
… there is simply no capacity within the existing budget and within existing human resources to undertake any more master plans in this time period.
But within literally two weeks another master plan was announced for the Hawker shops. On 17 November we had Mr Barr in this place saying, and I will say it again:
… there is simply no capacity within the existing budget and within existing human resources to undertake any more master plans in this time period.
But two weeks later, on 3 December, the Chief Minister announced a master plan for Hawker to be completed by March this year. I just make that as a point—that we have seen the sort of situation where Weston Creek has missed out before and we may be told that the priorities are elsewhere. In this case $650,000 was applied for but there was only $200,000 available and Weston Creek missed out. There is no doubt that this government can find money when it chooses to, as it did last year when, despite the fact that Mr Barr said there was absolutely no money and no human resources, it managed to find money for its own priorities when it came to it, and that was Hawker.
I do not want to see Weston Creek at the bottom of the list again. I say to Andrew Barr: go to the Weston Creek community and speak with them. This is not a new festival. This is something that is an important part of the community and has been part of the fabric of that community for a long time. It is sad that it was not run last year, but that was through certain circumstances. This is something that the government should be working with the community councils on to make sure it occurs.
I do not know what the reasons for the lack of funding are and whether or not it is a technical aspect of the application, but I think it is beholden on the government, if there is a technical aspect of the application, to work with the community council and the local community to make sure that if it is a community festival that has merit—and I think we all in this place agree that it is—that that organisation is supported in putting forward its proposal, rather than, as it did, simply rejecting it outright. I note that we are running short of time so I will not take up my entire allotted time. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Education and Training and Minister for Tourism, Sport
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