Page 1360 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 13 May 2014
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government that wants its way instead of a government that is willing to serve its community.
One of the recommendations dealt with rollovers, particularly in the Economic Development Directorate. We sought the government’s assurance that because there were so many rollovers, particularly in Molonglo 3 and in Gungahlin, as well as significant projects like Horse Park Drive water control and another Horse Park Drive extension, as well as delay in funding or delivery of Molonglo 2 projects, they could guarantee that they would get the land to market in time. We see so often that the government are unable to deliver on time and on budget, and the government are unable to get that land to market as cheaply as they can. We looked at this in a number of recommendations in the report. It is interesting to see that some have been agreed to. For instance:
The committee recommends that the ACT Government ensure that capital works projects are properly scoped and take into account long term future requirements.
That is particularly in reference to the Alexander Maconochie Centre. It is interesting when you read the government’s response:
Agreed.
The Government has taken this approach with the Alexander Maconochie Centre Additional Facilities project.
This is a prison which, on the day it was opened, was virtually full. We were told by the minister, particularly Minister Corbell, for years that there was 20 to 25 years capacity in the Alexander Maconochie Centre. This is another failure of the minister. Here we are with a new minister who is now going to have to expend, apparently, up to $54 million on things that probably should have been built originally. We all know that the finances on these projects change, but with prisons in particular there is a degree of difficulty to go back into a prison to rebuild. I would not be at all surprised if the indicative costs that Mr Rattenbury has put on the table blow out further. It will be difficult to do it because Mr Corbell got it so wrong in the first place.
We then looked at the issue of bullying. It comes up in a number of recommendations. There seems to be a theme with this government and it is an inability to stamp out bullying in the workplace, particularly in the ACT government. I am particularly pleased that the government has agreed to both recommendations 3 and 4. Recommendation 3 says:
The Committee recommends the ACT Government directorates and agencies should ensure the investigation of bullying complaints, whatever the method of notification, in a timely manner.
Agreed—which is entirely different to the approach of Mr Corbell during the hearings. I hope Mr Corbell will take this on board. We had a case where the departmental guidelines said a complaint had to be in writing, whereas the WorkSafe guidelines said if you have made the complaint verbally then it should be investigated. The department erred on the written and, therefore, did not investigate a case of bullying,
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