Page 1180 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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are experiencing. The president of the Lanyon little athletics club was reported in the Chronicle as saying, “The money would be better spent improving all of the athletics fields in the ACT, which were not up to standard.” Mr Dodt, the president of the Ginninderra little athletics, said, “Let’s be truthful, the money is best spent on all the facilities so 3,500 people can get the benefit of it, rather than the 400 that compete here once a week over summer.” He further stated, “If we are going to improve community participation, community access, investment needs to be where you can maximise it.” That is not a new revelation.
In the lead-up to the election, the Canberra Liberals held extensive consultation with local sporting clubs all over the ACT. We found that many playing fields and facilities were simply not up to standard. Feedback included that it is often difficult to get access to playing fields for training, with ovals and playing fields collectively booking 81,000 hours of usage per year. Some ovals, such as the Calwell oval, have nearly 5,000 hours of use each year, while others are simply sitting there. Ovals which were taken offline due to the drought some years ago are yet to be brought back online, and there is no indication of when, or if, they will be brought back.
Other feedback included the fact that the maintenance of grass fields is substandard and irrigation systems are old and unreliable. For example, when the Jamison oval remote watering system did not work over summer, the playing surface died. Sporting codes are offered access to fields which do not meet their needs. Change rooms are inadequate. For example, the Griffith oval does not accommodate female teams and referees. Canteens are dysfunctional and cannot be utilised by clubs for important activities such as fundraising. And there is a lack of lighting at fields such as Mawson, Calwell, Kaleen, Latham and Jamison, which shortens the time they are available for use, particularly for winter sports.
That is why, at the 2012 election, the Canberra Liberals promised to consult with local sporting clubs on a variety of upgrades that they needed in their community and promised to invest an additional $3.5 million for those upgrades. If the government had taken the role of community consultation seriously, perhaps these issues would not exist.
What we should take from today’s motion is that consultation is important. Community consultation and expert consultation can shape a project and ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are used to invest in projects where the benefit can be maximised. Often, if consultation is not done properly and if all avenues are not explored, the best intentioned proposal can miss the mark. I think that is what we are seeing occur here.
The proposal as it stands did not deliver what was promised in the election. The proposal is backed by a severely limited report in both scope and information on the current and future needs of athletics in the ACT, information that could have been simply provided by the athletics community, who know better than anyone else where the optimal location for this track should be.
In conclusion, I reiterate Mr Doszpot’s call for the government to delay this tender until further consultation can be completed for the benefit of all in the athletics community.
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