Page 1652 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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The master plan for Manuka Oval has been developed paying very close attention to community views from the beginning. The government’s first version of the Manuka Oval master plan that was released in 2009 was the subject of a very wide public consultation. There was a series of information sessions held, including one at the oval itself on 10 June 2009. A community survey of 1,000 people ran over three weeks in June 2009. There were a series of focus groups as well as a range of promotions and surveys during an AFL game day on 28 May. Information sessions were published in the Canberra Times and newsletters were distributed to businesses and residents in Barton, Kingston, Forrest and Griffith.
The 2009 master plan is available on the Manuka Oval website. The plan included a range of upgrades to be delivered over time, including traffic plans. As members would be aware, parts of that master plan have already been delivered, including increased seating at the venue, upgrades to the oval and expansion of the facility. The new lights were installed for Canberra’s centenary.
Following that first stage of work, the government released an update on the 2009 master plan in 2012-13. Like the original master plan, the government took this update out to the community for consultation, including presenting it at a meeting of the Inner South Canberra Community Council and the Kingston and Barton Residents Association in July of 2013.
Like the original master plan, this update is available on the Manuka Oval website. This master plan, the 2013 piece of work, outlines various upgrades required at the oval in terms of stadium infrastructure, if you like—stands, seating capacity and other venue enhancements—but also identifies a series of potential sites outside the immediate Manuka Oval footprint but within the Manuka circle that could possibly be developed for non-oval-related purposes, non-stadium-related purposes. They are very limited sites.
I need to stress—as I have said to the Canberra Times now more than 100 times, it seems—that I have never, and the government has never, supported any development on the Manuka pool site or any of the Manuka pool grounds. I said that when the unsolicited proposal was released, and that is consistent with my position in relation to the 2013 master plan for Manuka Oval and the 2009 master plan for Manuka Oval. Over seven years, I have made it very clear that the government does not support any development on the Manuka pool site.
To answer the question of where to now, I made a public statement at the announcement of the Manuka Oval test match, a historic first for Canberra—the first time our city will host a test match—that what will occur at Manuka Oval between now and the 2018-19 cricket season and that test match is a series of upgrades to Manuka Oval that will be funded by the territory government as part of our contractual commitment with Cricket Australia to host the test match. Those facility upgrades include, but are not limited to, improving player facilities, installing large replay screens for the test match, and providing enhanced media facilities to enable the broadcast of an international test match. That work will occur progressively over the next 2½ years to ensure that the venue is ready for that first, historic test match.
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