Senator David Pocock, Aquatic Alliance’s Matthew Turnbull, Friends of Canberra Olympic Pool’s Louise Watson, Canberra Diving Academy’s Ann Widdup, Canberra Underdogs underwater rugby club’s Jose Gonzalez, and MLA Thomas Emerson. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The ACT Government’s reasons for not including a diving facility in the planned $138 million Canberra Aquatic Centre don’t hold water for local politicians and community groups who have written to the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, and the Federal Government, urging them to reconsider.
They are also seeking a guarantee that the Civic pool not be bulldozed before a new dive facility is built.
Senator David Pocock, MLA Thomas Emerson, Aquatic Alliance’s Matthew Turnbull, and Friends of Canberra Olympic Pool president Terry Slevin penned the letter to Mr Barr and Finance Minister Senator Katy Gallagher, seeking a modest funding top-up, if required, to ensure a like-for-like replacement of the Civic pool in Commonwealth Park.
They said that according to Royal Lifesaving Australia, Canberra had missed out on receiving any of the $316.5 million in federal investment delivered and committed for aquatic facilities across Australia from 2017 to 2022.
“This appears to be the first time the Commonwealth has co-funded an aquatic facility for the ACT since self-government,” the letter said.
“The funding envelope is substantial and, notwithstanding the challenges posed by the site you have selected for the facility, ought to be sufficient to deliver a world-class facility that meets our community’s expectations.”
They said that for aquatic sports like diving, water polo, underwater rugby and underwater hockey to survive in Canberra, a 5-metre, deep-water dive pool needed to be delivered before the existing facility in Civic is demolished to make way for the Convention and Entertainment Centre.
As a last resort, a diving facility should be built at Stromlo Leisure Centre, but before the Civic pool is demolished.
At a press conference on Wednesday (25 February) outside Civic pool, Senator Pocock, Mr Emerson and Aquatic Alliance representatives dismissed the ACT Government’s reasons for excluding a dive facility from the Commonwealth Park proposal, including that the $138 million budget wasn’t sufficient.
Mr Turnbull said the funding was likely one of the largest amounts ever designated for an aquatic facility in Australia’s history.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have a really world-class facility here, in Canberra, with those diving amenities and, basically, a venue that can support national and international competitions, and community events,” he said.
He said the recently completed $135 million Adelaide Aquatic Centre had four pools, including a dive pool, as well as a double-storey building with business suites, hydrotherapy and even water slides.
“That is one of the most expensive aquatic builds currently in Australia,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We have more money than that build at the moment to allocate for this venue, so there’s no reason why we can’t have a building or a facility just like the Adelaide Aquatic Centre.”
The government has blamed site constraints such as rocky ground, limited space, and height restrictions imposed by Lake Burley Griffin, but these were just excuses, the groups said.
The 5-hectare site was the same size as the Civic pool, and Canberra Diving Academy head coach Ann Widdup said there was only a $1 million difference in digging in rock or not – $1.1 million compared with $2.2 million.
“This is not a huge amount to dig a hole and put in a dive pool,” she said.
The Adelaide Aquatic Centre site plan. Image: ACT Aquatic Alliance.
Senator Pocock said the National Capital Authority was changing the National Capital Plan in other areas to remove height restrictions.
He said it was disappointing that from questions in Estimates, it seems the ACT Government had not even raised the prospect of a diving facility with the NCA or the Federal Government.
“Clearly, this is a decision from the ACT Government, rather than saying we want to genuinely replace this like-for-like,” he said.
The government says a new diving facility would cost $60-80 million, based on a feasibility study for Stromlo Forest, but Ms Widdup said the inclusion of unnecessary features inflated this figure.
She said the government appeared to be gold-plating the Commonwealth Park project.
“Yes, it’s in Commonwealth Park, and you’ve got to have a pretty building, but really this is a swimming centre,” she said.
“An aquatic centre basically has a metal structure that goes to the top and has some sort of cladding.
“We’re not talking about a fancy high-rise building … we’re talking about a metal structure, and the government keeps saying, it’s just too expensive.”
Ms Widdup said a complete indoor facility at Commonwealth Park would multiply the number of users.
She said Civic pool could only be used for four months of the year, but a full-time, all-year facility would be full.
“We’d have the water consistently used for sporting games, diving, training and diving competitions. We’d have other sports like synchronised artistic swimming,” she said.
“You can’t compare what we use now in a part-time facility with what you would use numbers-wise in a full-time facility.”
Senator Pocock said there was plenty of precedent for state and territory governments to go back to the Commonwealth and renegotiate over funding commitments.
“We’ve seen it with the [Melbourne] urban rail loop, the Olympics in Brisbane, the Tassie Stadium, where state and territories say, hey, actually, to deliver this project is going to be a bit more, and they go back to the federal government,” Senator Pocock said.
“I really urge the Labor territory government to do that, to deliver for Canberrans.”
Mr Emerson said he did not have much confidence in the government, including in its new aquatic strategy and in its ability to follow through on that.
“Their existing aquatic facilities planning framework identified a city aquatic facility with diving facilities as a high priority in 2013,” he said.
He said building a new diving facility separately from the Commonwealth Park facility, probably without Federal Government 50/50 funding, would be even more expensive, in effect doubling the cost.
“It doesn’t make any sense to spend $138 million of public funds to go backwards in the level of amenity based on what we’ve got currently,” he said.
The groups also said it was important for the 50-metre pool to be competition-standard, unlike the last three pools built in Canberra, with a uniform depth so swimmers could dive safely from both ends.
