Page 2042 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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community ought to be catered for when considering this building. I am also delighted that, through consultation, the members of the committee did manage to cut away what people might consider to be the excesses that were in the first report.
Mr Moore alluded to the terms on which this building should be built. There is no doubt in my mind, and there is a strong recommendation in the report to this effect, that we ought to examine all possible ways of getting this building redone. I believe in the direct tender method, where people in the building industry in the ACT, which is very competitive today, put in their recommendations. I am also adamant that, as much as possible, the materials and furniture in the building ought to be from the ACT and the ACT region in order to reflect the fact that we have in the region the best of everything. Obviously, as much as possible, the people who refurbish the building ought to come from the ACT.
Harking back to Mr Moore's remarks, it was a pleasure to work with the people on the committee. It goes to show that politics do not come into these things as much as logic and commonsense. From time to time we might have our differences; but, when we get down to it and forget about the angst that happens across the floor, we can come up with some quite good work. I also thank the secretariat for their wonderful support, and the public servants, although some of them were surprised perhaps at the collective experience reflected on the committee. I thank Mr Lamont for using all his current contacts, and I thank you too, Madam Speaker. It was very difficult to put anything over the committee. We went through the whole thing thoroughly. Whilst we might have upset some bureaucrats who thought they might have been able to get away with certain things, the collective wisdom and experience of the committee made sure that the report reflects the fact that we got the best possible outcome, considering the time we had and other matters.
MR LAMONT (8.10): Firstly, Madam Speaker, I congratulate you, as chair of the Administration and Procedures Committee, for the way in which we have been able to bring forward to the Assembly this evening a report of considerable substance. We have been able, via this report, to arrive at a position on an issue that had the potential to divide this Assembly. It had the potential to create, as it did very early in the reference, a range of misconceptions by people who reported on what we were up to.
What we were up to was a very simple process: Sound financial management. We are spending $2m a year - dead money - renting this building to house the Executive, the Assembly secretariat, this chamber and the library services. We find it almost impossible to hold any substantial community function within this building because of the way in which it is designed. It most certainly is not purpose-built to allow for proper interaction between the Assembly and the community it serves.
We have not arrived at the recommendations in this report without considering what has happened in other houses around Australia. There was some banter by people who report the proceedings of this Assembly about what the committee was doing looking at what happened in the Northern Territory, particularly the construction of the new parliament house in Darwin. I believe that it was highly appropriate. We were able to gain great insight into the pitfalls that have beset the Northern Territory Government, which they quite frankly acknowledge, in
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