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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2052 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank members. Mr Speaker, there is no doubt that the cultural centre has been a very difficult issue, obviously not just for this Government but also for the previous Government which received the casino premium, as I recall, in about the early part of 1992. By the time it left office in the early part of 1995 it had not been able to make a decision to take forward the prospect of the cultural centre other than to establish a committee, which, with great respect, is a very easy decision to make but which leaves many of the harder decisions for others to make.

This Government has had to make those hard decisions. The hardest part of that process has been what Mr Moore has rightly identified as the additional cost of having a significant Public Service occupied building, which is the identified home for the cultural centre, needing to be vacated before it could be occupied as the cultural centre, or part occupied as the cultural centre for the Territory. Mr Speaker, regret it as much as we did, we could not avoid the fact that a price tag, a very considerable price tag - Mr Moore correctly identifies it as being up to $5m on some estimates - was identified as the cost of having to vacate that site temporarily or permanently for the purpose of building the cultural centre there.

Notwithstanding those difficulties, the Government believes it is able to move quickly to make a decision about the appropriate home and future of the cultural centre and to announce that decision very soon. In the spirit of Mr Moore's comments, I can indicate that we hope to be able to brief the Planning and Environment Committee very soon, perhaps later this week, on the Government's preferred decision on the cultural centre. We also, as a matter of courtesy, intend to brief the members of the steering committee of the cultural centre itself who have worked very hard, I must say, to bring this decision to fruition and have realistically accepted that lateral solutions need to be explored, and that is much to their credit. I think the Government will be able to announce a decision which will please members of the Planning and Environment Committee, as articulated by the views of Mr Moore in this place this morning.

I might also say, Mr Speaker, that the Government also believes that in making a decision of this kind it can address what we saw as a very serious problem that the previous Government had overlooked in respect of the casino premium. The casino premium was received by the Territory some four years ago now - more than four years ago, I think - and the previous Government in effect put that money into Consolidated Revenue without especially earmarking it in some kind of trust. In effect it pocketed the interest from that casino premium and in a sense hived that off to Consolidated Revenue. This Government was critical of that decision when in opposition. I hope, Mr Speaker, that the decision we can announce in the very near future will address not just the future of the cultural centre, but also address that very serious issue of the lack of accounting for the interest earned on the $19m by the previous Government.

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