Page 860 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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Ms Le Couteur said in her speech—and I paraphrase her—that 25 members support more playgrounds. If you came in here and asked, “Members, do we all support more playgrounds,” yes, we all would. She then said, “This is a great proposal. This has got a lot of merit.” We all agree with that. She then said, “But I’m not sure what the answer is.” Well, the answer is before her. Her point is that all 25 of us support playgrounds and more resources for them and that this is a great proposal at Waramanga. But then she asks: what should we do? Well, let’s support the playground at Waramanga. That would make sense.
In terms of Ms Fitzharris’s amendment, I am ambivalent about that. But I just make the point that it says “consider” an ongoing mechanism for maintenance. I think “implement” an ongoing mechanism would be better. I see her nodding in the affirmative. I hope that that is what we mean by that rather than just considering it, because consideration could equally be a rejection. I am a bit of a cynic, having seen some of the words put forward, as to whether we are just putting words forward that will have no consequence. But I am sure that Ms Fitzharris would never do something as sneaky as that.
I have circulated an amendment that was then amended based on a conversation I had with the minister, so I apologise for its scrappy nature. I had put forward an amendment essentially to what Ms Le Couteur and Ms Fitzharris had put forward, which is clearly going to be agreed to. I circulated an amendment basically saying to commit to the establishment of a new playground at Waramanga shops and work with the Waramanga community on its design and implementation to commence by the end of 2018 and report back to the Assembly on that progress by the last sitting in 2018. That was, in essence, to see whether the Labor Party and the Greens would actually vote against a concrete proposal to establish this.
Ms Fitzharris has since suggested an amendment to that amendment that she would agree to, so what has been agreed, as I understand it, between me and Ms Fitzharris is that the Assembly commit to the establishment of a new playground at Waramanga shops and report back to the Assembly on progress by July 2018. That is the intent of the amendment. If that is what is being agreed to today, then that is good. I and the community are going to have to take it a little bit on trust that something will happen, but by agreeing to this amendment today this government is committing to a new playground at Waramanga shops definitively.
I would like to have a time line in there for when that will be completed, but you do not always get everything you want—I understand that—but what we might be getting here is what we need, to paraphrase an old Rolling Stones song. I will shortly move this amendment, and what this will do, with the government’s support, and I hope with Ms Le Couteur’s support today as well, is that we all agree today that the government will commit to the establishment of a playground at Waramanga shops and will report back to the Assembly on progress by July of this year.
Having said that, I ask this Assembly, and the minister, in particular, to get on with it. Just saying, “Well, we’re going to commit to it and I am reporting back to you that this may happen in 2022”—a little bit like the new Canberra Hospital—is not going to
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