Page 1872 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 May 2009
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direct management of this project. Whilst it is true that this can progress under the current administrative arrangements, the extra level of bureaucracy will inevitably slow things down and be a cost to our tourism industry.
As I mentioned in the introduction of this bill, the bill will save Canberra taxpayers money. It would be wasteful of the government not to seize this opportunity for an amalgamation of the functions of the EPIC board with the operation of Territory Venues and Events. The government can see little point in having duplicated systems and disjointed development approaches. It is sensible now to wind up the operation of the Exhibition Park board and have Territory Venues and Events take responsibility for the EPIC site.
I repeat that this is not to say that the board of EPIC have not administered the venue in a wholly professional manner; they have. And I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my thanks for the stewardship shown by Mr Brian Acworth during his tenure as chair of the board, as well as to the board itself, comprising Mark Love, Gil Anderson, Robyn Hendry, Jean McIntyre and Peter Barclay.
However, it just does not make any financial sense to duplicate the administration and management processes when there is a department that is more than able to provide oversight for the management of the site. The staff of the corporation are already public servants and they would continue to be public servants with the passage of this legislation. I particularly want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent work of the General Manager of EPIC, Mr Tony Sadler. I look forward to continuing to work with him and his team.
Initially, if this bill were passed, I would envisage that EPIC would be integrated into the department structure over the next 12 months. This integration will allow the administration of EPIC to capitalise on the project management expertise within Territory Venues and Events and, as Ms Burch alluded to, there would then be further opportunities for savings to be achieved and streamlining of administrative processes in catering, cleaning, waste management, security and ticketing as part of this amalgamation. Importantly, it would provide the opportunity for getting one consistent approach to the development of the territory’s major venues, so it would be extremely foolish not to use such an opportunity to amalgamate operations and to save the Canberra taxpayer from paying for the duplication of an administrative function.
This is something that we should not be frightened of. There is no hidden bogey man here. It is not frightening. Nothing other than administrative savings will come from this. It is exactly the same process that we went through with Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval. It was admirably successful then, just as we know it will be successful now.
In his contribution Mr Rattenbury highlighted a range of options that the Greens have put forward to the government, including postponing the abolishment of the board and looking at making the savings through not paying the board members. I can indicate to Mr Rattenbury that the government will consider all of those options. If this legislation fails today, I will explore all of those possibilities.
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