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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1991 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

The exchange of that small portion of the Kingston industrial site for what is arguably the best piece of land in the Territory has resulted so far in projected expenditure of $6m. (Extension of time granted) So far the Government has committed $8m, but it says it will spend $6m on the demolition of that site to prepare it for Commonwealth use. How could you say that it was a good swap when we spend $6m on a piece of land to prepare it for the Commonwealth, and we take over a piece of industrial land which, according to Mrs Carnell's interjection, is worth nothing undeveloped?

Mrs Carnell: I said that Acton was worth nothing.

MR BERRY: She says now that Acton was worth nothing. Okay, Acton is worth nothing and the Kingston industrial site is worth nothing. We will have a level playing field so that we can adopt some of those Liberal philosophies.

Let us assume for a moment that the industrial site at Kingston is worth nothing and the Acton site is worth nothing. If I were looking at either one for development, I think I would come to the conclusion that the Acton site is worth many times more. We have taken that land at Kingston off the Commonwealth. We have to clean it up. We have to demolish the buildings in due course. Mrs Carnell will interject, I am sure, "No, the developer will do that". Do you not think the developer will deduct the cost of the demolition of those buildings from the premium that he pays for the site? So it comes at a cost to the Territory. We are so generous that on the Acton site, which is worth nothing according to Mrs Carnell, we spend $6m to make it worth something so that we can give it to the Commonwealth. That, in effect, is what has happened. This has been a dud deal which has been foisted on the people of the ACT, and they deserve to have it brought to their attention at every opportunity.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.30): Is it not tragic? I will start off where Mr Berry finished off and work backwards on the things that he spoke about. First of all, I will deal with the Acton-Kingston land swap. Mr Berry was terribly confused. We will look at the reality of the situation. We inherited an ageing empty hospital on Acton Peninsula, a site with nothing happening on it, and the Kingston site was an industrial site that was being used more or less as an ACTEW dump. On one site we had Acton Peninsula with an ageing hospital not being used, and on the other site we had an ACTEW dump.

Two years later we have the commitment by the Federal Government to a $130m National Museum on Acton Peninsula. I thought everyone in this Assembly supported that. It will provide significant jobs for Canberra and has significant tourist potential for the city. On Friday of this week we will announce the winners of the ideas competition for the Kingston foreshore, the site that we now own. Mr Berry said that the developer of Kingston will obviously charge the Government for demolition. The interesting word that he used was "developer". The fact is that on the Kingston site we can have a developer. We can actually have things happening on Kingston that will create jobs.

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