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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2049 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I must say, Mr Speaker, that the Planning and Environment Committee has made the comment on a number of occasions that we do not believe that section 19 would be part of that possibility, but the whole idea was that the cultural centre be the one that was included. Mr Speaker, the Planning and Environment Committee looked at the issue again when considering the 1995-96 draft capital works program. I quote from paragraph 4.15 of its report:

The committee queried officials from the Arts area about why no financial allocation appeared for the cultural and heritage centre for North Building on London Circuit in Civic. Out of the blue, the committee's attention was directed to a media release by the Minister for Arts and Heritage (Mr Gary Humphries MLA) dated 9 September 1995 announcing that this building would no longer go ahead and that the Minister was seeking new sites. Apart from the fact that the Minister's announcement flies in the face of long-established government policy (which itself was based on the bipartisan recommendations of this committee's predecessor in 1993), the committee observes that there is no information in the papers about where the deletion of such a facility fits into a long term strategy for cultural development in the city - which apparently is still supported by the Minister.

We understood, Mr Speaker, that the Minister's concern was a financial one and that he was reconsidering that issue. I quote from paragraph 4.16:

The committee expresses its surprise and disappointment at this decision of the Minister. The committee observes that this major change in government policy was not identified in the Draft Capital Works Program nor was it stated by officials when they first came to the table.

In paragraph 4.17 we made this recommendation:

The committee recommends that the Minister for Arts provide the Assembly with a full explanation about the basis for his unilateral decision to relocate the proposed cultural and heritage centre from North Building in Civic to an unspecified site elsewhere in Canberra.

The Minister told the committee by letter dated last October that it was impractical to proceed with the North Building site due to $5m relocation costs caused by moving public servants out of North Building. He stated that he had asked the Interim Board of Management for the Canberra Cultural Centre to consider alternatives to the site. In that letter Mr Humphries said:

I regret the substantial additional costs identified in an occupational health and safety study, commissioned by the previous Government to consider the impact on the remaining tenants of the proposed refurbishment and extension of the ground floor of North Building,

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