The following residents of the ACT draw the attention of the Assembly to the apparent closure of the Big Splash water park in Macquarie.
The Macquarie water park is an important community facility and refuge from the summer heat, which will become increasingly important due to climate change. Big Splash has not yet opened for the summer season with no explanation as to why. At the end of November, Big Splash announced that they would not be opening the slides for the summer, but the pools will be open for the school holidays, but now the school holidays are here, and the pools are still empty, and the phone has been disconnected.
Everyone in the ACT should have access to community facilities that help keep people and families safe from the heat in summer. Canberrans are feeling the effects of climate change with our summers becoming unbearably hot and a lot of our waterways closed due to increased bacteria from the hot weather. The ACT Labor Government has a responsibility to ensure that community facilities remain available and accessible to everyone.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the Assembly to call on the ACT Government to:
- Investigate all possible avenues to keep this important community facility open for use this summer and for future generations of Canberrans, including buying the facility and operating it as a public pool.
- Guarantee that the zoning of the land as Parks and Recreation PRZ2 Restricted Assess Recreation is retained to ensure this valuable community facility remains a community facility.