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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3694 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

by the announcement of the design and the feeling I think we all have that the project, after many false starts, is now finally coming through the tunnel, as it were. I look forward very much to seeing it emerge from that tunnel as an important contribution to the celebrations in 2001 of the Centenary of Federation.

Members will be aware that Ashton Raggatt McDougall, the winning architects, submitted an exciting design. It will bring tremendous vitality to both the Lake Burley Griffin foreshore and the Parliamentary Triangle. The architects will work in association with Robert Peck Von Hartel Trethowan to design the National Museum, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre, all on the peninsula. I hope the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre will be a tangible symbol of reconciliation in the heart of our city, our national capital, and that it will focus on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in the ACT and this region.

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Obviously, during construction, the architects will be required to have a significant Canberra presence. The $130m project will provide a major stimulus to the ACT economy, creating up to 700 on-site construction jobs through to the opening of the museum in 2001. The ACT has been invited to sit, and will sit, on the Museum Construction Coordination Committee, along with the chairs of the National Museum, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the National Capital Authority.

I have to say that, when the ACT had planning control of the peninsula, Acton was worth, in effect, very little to the ACT. Now, it will become home to a significant national cultural centre, which will not only benefit the local community but also encourage even more tourists from Australia and overseas to visit the national capital. At the same time, we will have a consolidated site of 37 hectares close to the Parliamentary Triangle, Manuka and Kingston. The Kingston foreshore development has the potential to revitalise Canberra's inner south and turn the lake foreshore into a venue for cultural activities, not just Canberra's largest ornamental garden feature. Mr Speaker, I think we have to say that the land swap is an excellent opportunity for the ACT on both sides. We guarantee the construction of a national museum and we can now move ahead with a vibrant, mixed use, waterfront precinct in Kingston. With the construction of the museum, I think Acton Peninsula will once again become a place to be shared by the whole community.

I might also make one comment on the design of the National Museum. It is interesting that it represents, I think, the first major national institution to actually interface fully and properly with the lake. It has always astonished me that we have a number of national buildings which almost seem to stand at some distance from the lake, to be aloof from the lake, to ignore the lake to some extent. I was excited very much by the fact that this particular design interfaced very directly with the lake. You can virtually walk out of the building and be on the shore of the lake. That is a quite exciting thing. This will be an important project and both sites will provide a stimulus to the ACT economy and add to the ACT's sense of place.

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