Sport and Recreation Minister Yvette Berry's chutzpah at a public meeting to save the Big Splash water park in Macquarie was actually jaw-dropping to witness.

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Rather than accept even a shred of responsibility for the debacle, she all but took credit for starting the Save Big Splash campaign. LOL.

Addressing 18-year-old Amelia Tattam, who actually did start the campaign, Ms Berry was, let's be honest, all rainbows and unicorns about the government's role in the Big Splash dramas. Comments such as "It's so exciting to be part of this fantastic campaign" and "I'm really happy to be working with [Amelia] again on the Big Splash campaign" revealed, well, a sense of delusion.

The government has not been campaigning to save Big Splash. It also has had plenty of time to step in and take some action about Big Splash but, more than two years after the water park was last open to the public, the Canberra community is still waiting for a decision. Any decision.

To her credit, Jo Clay, the Greens MLA for Ginninderra, who was sitting on the stage listening to Ms Berry played a straight bat. It was Ms Clay who really began the fight to save Big Splash, calling for government action more than a year ago to prevent the long-shuttered water park being lost forever to Canberra.

"Do we want to live in a hotter world that has no public pools or do we actually think this is something that matters and that we need to keep these, preserve these and maybe have more of them, all around our suburbs?," she told the meeting.

Jo Clay stood up for Big Splash

Since early 2025, Ms Clay has put forward two petitions to the Assembly. She also pushed the Assembly to confirm the Big Splash site would not be rezoned for housing. And she commissioned a survey of Canberrans about what they wanted for the future of the water park in Macquarie. It found that most people - 73 per cent of respondents - wanted the site to remain a water park. The remainder were happy for it to run only a pool and waterplay, with some other community facilities.

The survey also found 98 per cent of respondents wanted "government action", with strong support for the government either owning or helping to operate Big Splash.

"I think that's tapping into a longer-term thing where people are tired of seeing lease-squatting and sites that are left unused," Ms Clay said.

"So, it's actually good we're seeing some strong government action. We need to make sure we get to the end there."

In her campaign, Clay did fall down, however, by immediately swallowing the lessee's very nebulous plans for a hotel to be built on the site, which would have done away with the water slides, the main attraction, and put in an inexplicable "indoor-outdoor" 25-metre pool.

The Save Big Splash public meeting on February 19 was very well run. Speakers were kept to a strict time limit. There was a variety of voices. There were breaks in the meeting. There was even a Big Splash quiz and paper and pens on the tables for kids to draw their ideal water park.

The MC on the night was former journalist and "Belconnen native", Greg Kimball, who ran a tight ship, with a great sense of humour. It was very refreshing. Independent senator for the ACT, David Pocock, even reckoned someone like Kimball should run all public meetings in the national capital. But the meeting was also warned this was an information-sharing and listening exercise and not about having a go at anyone.

"We come in the spirit of positivity today ... We're here to have a conversation so please bear that in mind - otherwise Senator Pocock will have to spear-tackle you," Kimball said.

Again, some great humour. But the framing of the discussion kind of sucked the energy out of the room. People are allowed to feel angry about the Big Splash situation. They are allowed to feel frustrated that the government didn't move earlier.

The Territory Planning Authority via Access Canberra, on January 30 this year, issued a show-cause letter to the private owners of Big Splash, ostensibly Translink Management Group, but in reality a group of private lenders who repossessed the business, early in January. The owners, or their representatives, had until Friday, February 27, to respond to the authority's statement that it was considering terminating the lease because of breaches.

At the public meeting, Ms Berry was at pains to explain that the approach to the Big Splash case had to be very considered because the Territory did not want to end up in court because of a legal loophole. Fair enough.

But, to be clear, the laws that allow the planning authority to act have been in place since 2023. Big Splash has been closed since the summer of 2024. It's not unreasonable to ask why action wasn't started a year ago when the Greens and Ms Clay were calling for it.

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