Page 2167 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
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His motion is an insult to the community on so many levels. The replacement turf at Nicholls only came after I wrote to the minister, as shadow minister for sport and recreation. I wrote because of concerns over the safety of the surface, following feedback from the sporting groups, the local schools and, of course, parents. The new ovals at Taylor are said to be a great asset for the residents of this new suburb, as well as the local school. However, we know that the project is running late for handover and it appears to be lacking the right foundations in terms of drainage and irrigation. We have seen this with the main oval in Gungahlin, and most recently the oval at Melrose. I will be keeping a close eye on Taylor and making sure cost cutting and shortcuts do not impact too much on the ratepayers of the ACT.
I welcome the announcement that new facilities will be built at Throsby, in partnership with Capital Football. I hope this will be an asset for Canberra. The venue is also available for community and grassroots sport. Whilst this facility is set to have some indoor space for futsal, there still remains a lack of indoor sport centres across Canberra. The claim in this motion that the two school halls solve this issue is just outrageous.
In case Mr Pettersson has not been paying attention—and I gather from this motion and his other interests that he has not—his government made an election promise in 2016 for a feasibility study into indoor sports. Where are we up to with that? Nowhere. The study has been conducted. The consultation was woeful. And the report sits somewhere on the minister’s desk with no action, no funding, no vision for the future of sport in the ACT. Indoor sport centres are desperately needed not just for Gungahlin but all across the territory. School halls in Taylor and Amaroo are great, but they are not the answer for our local sporting competitions.
While we are on the topic of broken promises, let us talk about Casey. This motion calls on the government to undertake community consultation for facilities in Casey. Mr Pettersson might try to pretend this is his idea. However, I have seen correspondence from Minister Berry committing to this consultation already. In January this year the minister wrote that the government had started an audit of community recreation and commercial needs for Casey. In early May the minister confirmed that the audit had finished and the government would move on community consultations in June. A government project officer has already been appointed and the plans are underway for the usual social media campaign, letterboxing and surveys. To stand here today and pretend that this is the work of Mr Pettersson or any other Yerrabi Labor MLA is a joke.
What makes this worse is that this government has taken the community for a ride on this issue before. In 2012, as part of the development of the suburb of Casey the ACT Labor Party costed and promised a community sport and recreation area to the tune of $3 million. This is yet another failed election promise. In 2016 a development application was submitted for a community recreational irrigated park in Casey. The design was good. There was room for a mixed use court, irrigated green space, a playground, a toilet block, 30 car parks and even a community activity centre. I have to say that if Mr Pettersson took his job seriously he would have done something to
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