Page 561 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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cost-effectively reused. Such information could limit the types of uses available for these sites. What would need to happen before a site is sold? As I have said, the government is committed to a comprehensive evaluation process for all sites. Therefore, no site will be offered for sale unless and until the evaluation process concludes that disposal is the preferred option.
The Griffith library was one of several tenants previously occupying the former Griffith primary school buildings. That point is missed by a lot of people. They think Griffith library was a freestanding building. It was not; it was a tenant of the former Griffith primary school. The government has on several occasions committed to retaining the former school as a community facility, and I did that on the steps of the library. Accordingly, I once again confirm that the government has no intention of selling this facility. In fact, work is under way in the Department of Territory and Municipal Services to tenant vacant areas in the buildings as they become available. At present, the buildings house the East Timorese Embassy and the administrative unit of the ACT Library and Information Service. The administrative unit is being relocated to Macarthur House later this year, and the space vacated will be offered to community groups that are already on the Department of Territory and Municipal Services’ community tenancies application register. In addition, negotiations are well advanced with three community groups, including ACTCOSS, for the small amount of space that is currently vacant. Announcements about these tenancies are expected to be made shortly.
The government provides extensive accommodation options for community groups through both the Department of Territory and Municipal Services and the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services. Between these two departments, accommodation is provided for in excess of 250 community organisations—250; get it through your head! Community organisations usually utilise government accommodation in one of two ways. The first is as a casual user, but this requires a person such as a janitor to oversee the opening, closing and use of a facility. With the closure of the schools and preschools, there are no longer people employed for this role, and accordingly the premises are not available for casual hire.
The second option is to provide a form of full-time tenancy, and this is undertaken through the provision of a licence for unleased land or a sublease for leased land. This type of tenancy arrangement is a major undertaking for a community organisation and is used for tenancies with a duration of between one and three years at a rental substantially below the commercial rate for equivalent private sector rent—annoyingly, something not acknowledged by Dr Foskey. Furthermore, organisations taking on such tenancies have an expectation that the tenancy will be renewed upon expiry.
To offer all or part of a vacant school premises to community organisations and groups before the evaluation process is completed would create a level of expectation about the continued occupation of that space and therefore possibly compromise the evaluation program. Accordingly, the government has decided against utilising the vacant school premises, except to accommodate community groups that were either already permanent tenants at the time the school closed or have been asked to vacate space in ongoing schools. The latter tenants are being asked to vacate because the
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