Page 533 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017
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offered assistance to help mpowerdome to resolve their parking issues. But we will not go in there and build them a car park; it is not appropriate for the ACT government to do so. They are a private business that, as far as I am aware, has been on the market and for sale since April last year. The Liberal Party committed a $300,000 windfall gain to a commercial operation that is for sale.
In terms of indoor sports for our community, there can be no doubt about this government’s commitment to the provision of sporting opportunities across our city. With regard to indoor sports, the implementation of the indoor sports facility study released in 2016 is ongoing on a range of recommendations. In line with this study, Active Canberra and the Education Directorate have commissioned upgrades to existing school facilities to improve community access for sport and recreation use.
Importantly, upgrade priorities are informed by feedback from sporting user groups. So far upgrades have been made at Alfred Deakin High School, Lyneham High School and Lake Tuggeranong College, with work at Wanniassa High School expected to be completed in February. Works are also underway to restore the gymnasium at the Hedley Beare centre in Stirling, with the facilities scheduled to become available in March this year. While these projects are expected to fully expend the government’s initial $100,000 commitment, an additional $100,000 has been committed through the Education Directorate, enabling further upgrades to occur and ensuring that our schools can perform well as important community and sporting hubs.
Community sporting organisations that have benefited so far include the Woden Weston Dodgers basketball club, South Canberra Futsal and the Canberra City Stallions Basketball Club. Once work at the Hedley Beare centre and Wanniassa high are complete, program adjustments are expected to open opportunities for smaller sports, including badminton and martial arts.
As I have said, we also announced during the election campaign that this government is committed to further investigating feasible options for providing indoor sporting spaces in Woden, Gungahlin and Belconnen. Funding to progress this work will be considered as part of this year’s budget.
Also, during the ACT election campaign last year, Labor made it very clear that it supports an active, healthy local community, and we reconfirmed our long-term commitment to making the right investments in the right places across Canberra to support local sporting endeavours. I was pleased to be able to announce that we will undertake community and industry consultation to determine the best options and the best location, construction and operational models for a new ice sporting centre on the south side of Canberra. I can say that there is a great deal of community interest in this project, and, as the idea develops, I will have more detail to provide. I would encourage everyone to get involved in this important piece of work so that we can ensure that what is built for Canberra is absolutely what the community wants.
Across the ACT we have a considerable amount of work occurring on our major government-managed sport and recreation infrastructure precincts, including construction funding of $6.653 million, which was provided through the
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