Page 354 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2010
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justice. These major projects that carry a high deliverability risk, both individually and as a program, are being delivered and are contributing to our performance to date.
In my portfolio the building the education revolution program of works is progressing very well. This is a major program of works involving significant investment for education in the territory that requires delivery in an incredibly tight time frame. This program alone involves 152 individual projects funded by the commonwealth government in partnership with the territory. I am sure, Madam Assistant Speaker, you can appreciate the magnitude of this program and the challenges faced in the pursuit of its delivery.
The 152 projects consist of 68 projects under the primary schools for the 21st century program, 84 projects under the national school pride program at 82 ACT public schools. All of these projects are well advanced and on track. As at 10 January, 78 national school pride projects, or 93 per cent, had reached completion and construction had commenced on 54, or 79 per cent, of the primary schools for the 21st century projects. The delivery to date of this program is a proven achievement in the delivery of major projects for the territory.
In addition, the housing elements of the nation building and jobs plan are also progressing well. Stage 1 is an $11 million project resulting in 57 new dwellings across the ACT. This program is being delivered through six construction packages of which all contracts have been finalised. This project is also tracking well and at the end of December 2009 construction had commenced at 55 of the 57 sites. Eleven properties, or 19 per cent of the program, have reached completion, with the entire project on target to reach completion by June 2010.
The list continues with Gungahlin college. This is a major project and it is on track with the first package of works reaching completion in October 2009. The final package is well and truly underway and on track. Also in Gungahlin, the Harrison high school project had reached 90 per cent of completion of the first stage as at 31 December 2009. Across the board, 100 functional briefs have been reported as lodged for the year to date. This points to significant progress being made across government to enable major projects to be delivered.
So far this year we have successfully delivered important projects including, to name just a few, the Tharwa Drive upgrade, the Belconnen Arts Centre, the inner south library at Kingston, the new horticultural facility at the CIT Bruce campus, the reopening of the Noah’s Ark resource centre in Rivett, the delivery of road intersection infrastructure in Crace, the completion of works at Glebe Park, the reopening of the Erindale Active Leisure Centre, the completion of the Lakeside Leisure Centre refurbishment and the completion of works at the Eddison Park youth recreation facility, including play equipment, a skate park and a half basketball court. The list goes on.
I will not have time in the remaining 40 seconds to complete that list but there are many more projects that will be delivered in the next six months. This is an ambitious program to deliver and we have put in place the systems to do it. Despite the continued attacks from the opposition regarding the delivery and management of
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