Page 4607 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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Then we go to (2):
… calls on the ACT Government to immediately abandon this $432 million project.
I was really quite surprised to see that. The Liberal Party, or at least Mr Smyth from the Liberal Party, has been calling for the government to develop a government office accommodation strategy. That is something which the public accounts committee called for. What we need is a strategy rather than a particular decision about a particular project.
I would draw members’ attention to the motion which we passed on 24 August this year. It was moved by my colleague Ms Hunter. It noted:
… that the 2011-2012 Budget appropriated $500 000 for further evaluation of options for government office accommodation …
That is where we are up to at present. We are spending half a million dollars this year to look at the issues. Given that there clearly is an issue of government staff accommodation, that would seem to be a quite reasonable thing to do. We also note that funding for the final project has not yet been approved by the Assembly. The government has committed to market testing the delivery of a government office building.
All of these things aside, the government has a commitment to house public servants in buildings that can achieve and maintain a minimum 4.5 NABERS rating and to pursuing carbon neutrality in ACT government operations by 2020. These are goals which I would hope have the approval of all of the Assembly.
Unfortunately, we also have to note that resource management plans were supposed to be completed for all agencies by 2009 but most remain outstanding. The reason that is important is that the government is not actually doing the job that it could be doing with its existing accommodation. One of the things that we would like the government to do is look at its inventory a bit more clearly. Potentially some of the inventory of buildings should be retained. There is Dame Pattie Menzies, for instance. That has recently been refurbed. My understanding is that it is quite energy efficient. It is well located. It is not clear to me why the government would want to dispose of that.
At point (f) we noted:
… ACT public servants should be provided with accommodation that:
(i) provides safe and professional workplaces;
(ii) provides more efficient services to the community;
(iii) meets our responsibility to the environment and our legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets; and
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