ACT Sports Minister Yvette Berry failed to initiate a feasibility study into a Gungahlin indoor sports centre, despite claiming in February that the study was underway.

That’s the claim by Opposition Sport and Recreation spokesman James Milligan.

The Liberal claims that Minister Berry wrote to him that the feasibility study would now only commence later in the year, depending on budgetary processes, and be completed in 2018.

“In the same letter she attempted to divert attention from the stalled feasibility study to a commercially operated indoor sporting facility in Nicholls that will ‘shortly open’ as a viable alternative for a sports facility in the Gungahlin region,” he says.

“Whether this is a case of misinformation or something more deliberate, I find it concerning that the Sports Minister would report to the Assembly that a feasibility study was ongoing when in fact it was not.

“Instead of writing to apologise for her mistake, Minister Berry suggested a derelict site where development has been stalled for the past two years as a viable alternative for the Gungahlin sporting community.

“The ongoing failure to initiate a feasibility study, to inaccurately report on its status and then to divert attention from her error to a derelict construction zone as an adequate sporting facility is concerning.”