Page 1448 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 2012

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(a) identified land on Dixon Drive in Holder for development of a childcare centre catering for up to 125 children;

(b) allocated $7.5 million for development of the centre;

(d) forgone the revenue opportunity for the potential sale of the land;

(e) made a development application; and

(f) on 23 February 2012, called for public comment on the proposed centre; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) reconsider the decision to develop the facility for retention as an asset of the Government;

(b) examine the feasibility of releasing the land for development as a childcare centre either by a private developer, a not-for-profit community-based organisation or through a community-commercial collaboration arrangement; and

I want to make it perfectly clear—and it is a shame that the minister is not here so that she will not be in any way confused—that the Canberra Liberals are strongly in support of the need for more childcare places in the ACT, and we strongly support the proposal to build a childcare centre on the block on Dixon Drive in Holder, as proposed by the government. My colleague Mr Hanson, the very able member for Weston Creek, in particular will speak further on this, but I want to make it perfectly clear from the outset that this is not a motion to say, “Do not build a childcare centre.” This is a motion that says, “We do not believe that it is in the best interests of ACT taxpayers that the ACT government build that childcare centre.”

In the last 3½ years of this Assembly, it has become increasingly obvious that this ACT Labor government has no real vision or strategy for the delivery of childcare in the ACT. This seems to extend to childcare infrastructure. You would recall, Madam Deputy Speaker, that in 2008 ACT Labor promised to build two new childcare centres, at a cost of $4 million. Neither has been built. Instead, Labor spent $4 million to refurbish one end of Flynn primary school to provide a net gain of 10 new childcare places. It is not a new childcare centre; so it does not qualify as a delivery on the 2008 election promise.

In 2010, when this proposal was first put forward, I specifically asked the minister whether this was part of their 2008 commitment, and she told me it was not. This childcare centre is a refurbishment that brings together two existing childcare service providers, creating only 10 additional places for west Belconnen families.

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