2CC News is reporting that the Stanhope Budget Hydrohazard Memorial Tree Garden (the arboretum we can’t afford and don’t have enough water to support) has officially been put on hold. Chief Turnip Stanhope is still babbling about how the tree garden will be the best tourist attraction Canberra has ever seen and he hopes future governments will plant the garden.
The Arboretum was allocated $6 million dollars over two years in the Stanhope government’s horror budget [1] back in June, and I shudder to think how much money has been spent on “planning” for the arboretum since then. Stanhope says the plan for the arboretum will be sent back to the winning designers, and they will re-work it…why they need to do that when the tree garden is being scrapped is beyond me…but I bet the designers will get a decent chunk of money once the plan is sent back to them.
Perhaps they will plan a turnip garden instead…no, scrap that, the Legislative Assembly already has far too many turnips, it doesn’t need more.
Samuel
Comments Disabled To "Arboretum Officially On Hold"
#1 Comment By seepi On October 23, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
i though t it was only downgraded from 12 to 6 million funding,not scrapped?
#2 Comment By Samuel On October 23, 2006 @ 4:41 pm
Sorry about that seepi, your comment hit the moderation queue and I can’t see any reason why it did that.
The arboretum was downgraded to $6 million in the June budget, but Stanhope has issued a press release today saying that it is scrapped…the press release isn’t on his website yet, but 2CC received it by fax and subsequently got a few soundbytes from Stanhope.