Page 301 - Week 01 - Thursday, 27 February 2014
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It is an important area for the territory economy. It diversifies the territory economy and it brings a great deal of enjoyment to Canberrans to be able to participate in national sporting competitions in their home city and to be able to see the best in the nation and in the world in their own city. (Time expired.)
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, what major events will the ACT host in the next 12 months?
MR BARR: Starting on the coming weekend, we have the National Rally Championship. We are also looking forward to 2015, Canberra being the host to three Cricket World Cup matches at Manuka Oval in February and March. We also, of course, are one of four jurisdictions hosting matches in the Asian Football Cup. GIO Stadium will host six pool matches and a quarter final. There will be seven matches at the stadium. The final draw for this tournament will be announced later this month. So we will know the teams who will be based in Canberra for the pool rounds and likely quarter finalists later this month. But they are significant events for the city. We are only able to host them as a result of the investments in infrastructure and the success of our centenary year events.
I make the observation that these investments in facilities and in ensuring that ageing infrastructure is brought up to the minimum standard required for these competitions costs money—significant amounts of money—and we always need to keep an eye for the future and have a view not back to what we might have done 15 years ago but where we need to be in 15 years time.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Minister, what are the economic benefits for hosting the Cricket World Cup and the soccer Asian Cup games?
MR BARR: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. Both of these events obviously bring considerable economic and social benefits to the territory. Deloitte Access Economics has been engaged by the ICC Cricket World Cup organisers to undertake a pre-event economic impact and social benefits assessment for each of the host jurisdictions. At the time of that work, Deloitte Access Economics anticipated that the direct expenditure into the territory economy would be in excess of $8 million, with a total added value to the territory in excess of $7 million. These figures were based at the time on the ACT hosting only one pool match. We are now hosting three, so we can anticipate returns to our economy greater than those particular figures.
For the Asian Cup, the minimum estimated paying spectators for matches across the seven matches for the territory is around 55,000. This will clearly bring a significant amount of people to the territory, encouraging further economic activity in January, which is an important time of year for us to boost activity in our economy. It also provides a fantastic opportunity to promote our city throughout South-East Asia, and aligns particularly well with the government’s economic development agenda, particularly around investment facilitation and direct flights into our city out of South-
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