Page 2083 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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facilities. Indeed $1.2 million was allocated for fit out in the 2001-02 budget, as Mr Corbell articulated on 10 December 2003 in this place. Could the minister please assure the Assembly that the ACT government will cover the cost of essential communication and operational equipment such as hearing loops, talking lifts and room dividers and the basic fit out costs for those organisations the government has promised to look after.
MR HARGREAVES: I thank Dr Foskey for the question. I know there is some concern out there in the ether because I believe quite sincerely that there are some misunderstandings. I am grateful for the opportunity to correct those misunderstandings. When a building is commissioned and built there are in fact two types of fit out. Indeed I might use the example of the Canberra Centre across the road.
The building is built by a construction company to provide certain amenities and services, and it provides basic fit out, for example, the types of walls, the access, such things as whether or not there are X number of lifts, whether there is disabled access and whether there are reception areas conducive to that particular type of building being created. But contained within a building also are particular segments of it and particular tenancies within it. To take the Canberra Centre analogy again, we are talking about the shopfront facilities. It is, in fact, the responsibility of the tenants to arrange their own fit out to enable their own uniqueness to be displayed and to be applied for whatever they want to use it for, which is different from the people next door.
When the government signed a development deed with the Queensland Investment Corporation in December 2000 for the development of section 84, under the terms of the deed the QIC was responsible for funding the design and construction of the replacement building. At that point $1.7 million was allocated in the 2001-02 capital works program for additional space and fit out. Further supplementation of just over $1 million was provided in the second appropriation of 2002-03, to ensure that the appropriate plant and equipment was included in the community space. That, for example, talks about additional lift capacity—or capability, at any rate.
We have been in conversation with the board of the Griffin Centre and, on occasion, the individual tenancies. In fact, I understand that there is this misunderstanding or lack of appreciation of definition shared by people. To make sure that everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet I have asked that one particular officer, skilled in this sort of provision, be available to talk as a single liaison point with the Griffin Centre tenants. As I understand it, meetings will be held, or at least offered, on a fortnightly basis between now and the time the refurbishment or the new premises will be available. It is the government’s responsibility to make sure that the building is in a fit state to receive the new tenants. I have all the confidence in the world that that will be achieved.
DR FOSKEY: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. I wonder if the minister could explain how community service organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and 2XX radio station, which are funded by this department, will afford the relocation costs, given that their service agreements preclude them from directing substantial funds to equipment and accommodation.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, as I indicated to you, there is an officer specifically tasked with liaising between each and every tenant. We have to understand that the needs
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