Page 6 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
other buildings in Civic which are being refurbished on the same sort of premise. So office refurbishment is certainly happening in Civic as we speak. It is certainly something which the private sector or the government are quite capable of doing. I also point out that the ACT government already has a dollar-for-dollar matching incentive scheme to encourage building owners to upgrade their stock for energy efficiency.
I would be confident that, with the current oversupply of office buildings, it would be possible for the ACT government to look at finding an office building which meets the locational objectives, the environmental objectives and the economic objectives. This would be better for the ACT government and for Canberra as a whole.
What I would like to see is that, before the government commit to what is expected to be a project in the order of $400 million, they seriously look at all the alternatives, not some of the alternatives. They should prepare a full business case which includes the environmental and economic costs of all the alternatives. They should bring this, as PAC’s recommendation says, to PAC and PAC will then bring it to the Legislative Assembly. This is an important decision. We need to look at all of the issues.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.12): I endorse most of the words that Ms Le Couteur, as chair, has said about this report and start by thanking colleagues on the committee and the secretariat for their support in putting out the interim report so speedily. This is a big decision for Civic, in particular, but it is a big decision for the government as well. It is not a decision that should be made lightly. Indeed, in the course of the process that the government has undertaken we now have the revelation that there is more than 13 per cent office vacancy in the ACT and, in the short term at least, there is no respite for that market.
There is a question about the government going ahead and building their own office block. I think we have to start with the government’s response to the initial report. The initial report from the Auditor-General—report No 6 of 2009: Government office accommodation—did a number of studies on various projects that the government had undertaken. However, the committee decided to take a forward-looking view to see what needed to happen in future to ensure that some of the mistakes, particularly with, say, the relocation of the Emergency Services headquarters to Fairbairn, would not be repeated. I will read recommendation 3 from the Auditor-General:
ACT Property Group should develop and implement an office accommodation strategy that considers short, medium and long term planning strategies and objectives for the whole of government.
The government response was:
Agreed
The development of accommodation strategies are identified within the ACT Government Real Estate Policy.
It is disappointing that it went on to say:
The long term strategy will be influenced by the Government’s consideration of the possible whole-of-government office block.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video