Page 1174 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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Mr Barr: Is already—
MR DOSZPOT: The CIT car park is not accessible from where this ground is located. It is quite a way away. It certainly is not utilised by the community at the moment, Mr Barr. It is not utilised.
What about change rooms? Let us just think about that. The car park is one of the main issues that you will see when you come out and have a look at just what happens there currently on a weekend. But what about change rooms, equipment storage, toilets, the existing toilet change rooms and the canteen and equipment storage. They are barely adequate now. How many election cycles would it take to get them improved? There is also doubt that the upgrade as it currently sits will actually be IAAF compliant, as the minister promised it would be.
There is concern that with the upgrade there will not be enough room for javelin and nowhere to install photo finish and other equipment required for IAAF-compliant events. In fact, it has been suggested that it may not even be suitable for a standard little athletics program. All that for $4.5 million. If that has not already become a media nightmare for the government, there is the question of just how and when construction will start and when it will be finished.
First, some are told it will be finished by the end of 2013. Others in the athletics community are assuring members who are not happy with some, if not all, of the plans that there is still lots of planning and any decisions are at least a couple of years away. What does Woden football club, who also use the facility, do about their competition and training activities? They are told they can go to either Hawker or Kaleen and that they should be ready to move possibly from June this year. But for how long? They have not been told.
Minister Barr will no doubt get up and tell the Assembly that it is all a media beat-up, that the Woden club want the facility and have said they will make it work, and that other clubs are just jealous. All of that might be true. Certainly, it would seem that some people in positions of seniority within clubs have been put into a difficult situation. They probably feel they have to take what is on offer even though they have said publicly and privately it is not what is wanted for fear of getting nothing. I can sympathise with that sentiment.
The pity of all this is that it has divided the athletics community. The angst and anger amongst a number of key players could have all been avoided, and just who is really supporting it? The chair of ACT Little Athletics Association wrote to me in March and said, inter alia:
As I mentioned, we have some short-term concerns about housing our biggest and most successful centre and some long-term concerns about the viability of the proposed facility. We are writing to the ACT government directly. Our Woden centre, which has its home at that ground, will be writing separately—
(Time expired.)
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