Page 3369 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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further work in relation to the government office building in Gungahlin. They have been tasked with finding a suitable site for a 7,000 square metre office building and associated parking, for it to be either government or privately owned, to investigate the most appropriate procurement process to ensure the best outcome for the territory—but also ensuring that those who have purchased commercial land in Gungahlin are not disadvantaged—to identify which government staff would be the most appropriate tenants for the building and to identify the requirements for the building in terms of the base fit-out for those appropriate tenants. That work is underway.
In relation to the CBD proposals, they are the secondary focus for the government. We have got a priority on Gungahlin first, as I have indicated, and I want to see that work proceed quickly. There are opportunities to look at a variety of different procurement models. We have indicated throughout the process that we are certainly open to having those models tested. However, ultimately there will be a need to make decisions and those decisions will be based on the criteria that I outlined to the Assembly yesterday.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Le Couteur?
MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Do the specifications being put to market test for the city office building vary at all from the requirements stipulated in the reports to date? How have carbon neutrality and the life cycle impacts been factored into the specification?
MR BARR: Those sustainability measures are certainly a part of the government’s consideration in relation to both projects and will factor very highly in our ultimate decision-making processes. I do note that in response to the announcement that I made over the weekend the Property Council have asked for a greater degree of flexibility in relation to the CBD project.
I am happy certainly to consider ideas that are put forward but, again, the specifications that the government has outlined are there for all to see and have been discussed at some length. I do not believe that what we are looking at here is a dramatic move away from the fundamental principles that the government has outlined. But there are a number of different procurement models, as we have discussed extensively through the estimates process. I would like to see those examined. I am conscious, Mr Speaker, that there are very strongly put arguments from some within the property sector that the project can be delivered by them more effectively, more cost effectively. I am interested in seeing those claims put to the test.
MS HUNTER: Mr Speaker, a supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter, a supplementary.
MS HUNTER: Minister, will the government’s commitment to a minimum of 10 per cent of project workers being apprentices, trainees and Indigenous people be stipulated in the building contract requirements and will it be integrated into the final contract?
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