Page 2153 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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Times site - and a very good decision it is, too - and we have given an undertaking to ensure continued community involvement in the area by the announcement of this plan that I allude to. This is in the record, is it not?
Mr Humphries: It has been tabled.
MR DUBY: It has been tabled. These development plans for the Griffin Centre and that whole precinct have been tabled and they will be here for people who take note of these things to avail themselves of them.
The other thing that we have come out on and made quite clear is that in the interim the Griffin Centre will continue to operate on its current basis. We have given an absolute guarantee on that basis. For the Labor Opposition to suggest that somehow we are planning to renege on that commitment is clearly ludicrous. There is one thing I know that the record will show and that is that when this Government gives a commitment it keeps it; it sticks to it. We will enter into a written agreement with the Griffin Centre management to set these interim management arrangements into a licence agreement. That licence agreement will be in place until the longer-term arrangements we have been discussing - namely, the community uses of the new Civic community centre - have been developed; until these longer-term arrangements have been entered into in relation to those facilities.
Another thing that needs to be pointed out, Mr Speaker, is that the actual bricks and mortar of the Griffin Centre have reached the end of their economic life. The building is clearly inadequate for the uses to which it needs to be put. You only have to speak to the current users of that building to be told of that situation. I have inspected this site, which I think is probably more than some people in the Opposition have done, and there are people working out of offices of totally inadequate size. The heating arrangements are totally inadequate. The general facilities for good office accommodation and good meeting areas are totally inadequate. The building was never originally designed to meet community needs, and it does require - - -
Ms Follett: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I was going to draw your attention to the state of the house but Mr Humphries has returned.
MR DUBY: It was never designed originally to meet community needs, and it requires extensive repairs and maintenance. It would be worth while to point out to those who are adamant that people should be locked into using the Griffin Centre for a further 25 years that the external repairs alone that are currently required to that building have been estimated at over $300,000. Lord knows what the internal refurbishment of the accommodation and facilities that are provided there would cost.
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