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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2887 ..

Assembly on 10 December 2003 initiated, I believe, by Ms Tucker. The motion called on the government to—

• develop and implement, as a matter of urgency, a plan to accommodate the vital community-run services for marginalised people that are presently in unsatisfactory or impermanent accommodation around the city, recognising that these services include, but are not limited to the CAHMA, the Free Food Program, WIREDD and Directions ACT.

• not sign off on the internal design and fitout of the building intended to replace the existing Griffin Centre until these accommodation issues in and around Civic have been resolved.

The motion has two parts: firstly the requirement to develop and implement a plan to accommodate community-run services around the city. This requirement can be interpreted to cover all community facilities provided in and around the city by the government. The property branch of the Department of Urban Services is developing a whole-of-government approach to property asset management for all government owned buildings, including community accommodation and community facility buildings. Other ACT government property owners, including the Department of Education and Training, ACT Health and the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, are actively involved in the development of this whole-of-government strategy.

Community organisations will also be consulted in the development of the strategy, in particular in relation to community accommodation and facilities. The Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services has developed, and the government has approved, an asset management strategy for the 39 community facilities on DHC books. Of the organisations mentioned in the Assembly motion CAHMA and WIREDD are currently tenants of the Griffin Centre and, as with all other current tenants, are guaranteed accommodation in the new centre.

The Free Food Program, which uses the existing building, will continue to operate in the new facility. Directions ACT is a program managed by ACT Health. The government is aware of concerns about the current accommodation for Directions ACT at East Row. ACT Health is working with Directions ACT to locate more appropriate alternative accommodation. Recent discussions are promising but have not yet been finalised.

The second part of the motion concerns the finalisation of space allocation in the new Griffin Centre. This has been a lengthy and detailed process, and both departmental officers and Griffin Centre tenants have contributed to it. Meetings were held with individual tenants and with the board of the ACT Council of Cultural and Community Organisations, and several group presentations were made to tenants. The department engaged Tania Parkes Consulting to assist in finalising tenant accommodation requirements. At this stage tenants are being consulted on the detailed internal design and fitout of the particular tenancy allocations.

As is the norm in such processes, some issues will continue to arise during the design and construction phase. The building design allows for flexible internal use of the building and there is potential to change tenant accommodation layout at any time during

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