Page 1431 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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we wanted to achieve during this term—that is what the parliamentary agreement is about: the things we collectively wanted to move forward, things the Greens wanted to bring to the partnership and things that the ALP wanted to bring to the partnership—there was a clear commitment to get the Australia forum to the stage where it is investment ready. That is what the Canberra business community had told me and the Greens prior to the last election; that was the policy commitment they were looking for.
The thing was not ready to go, but there was a whole lot of work that could be done to get it to that point where it is investment ready and where financing can then be explored as to whether it will be funded through a federal government contribution or whether it will be a public-private partnership. The various financing approaches were not clear at that point, but the government’s job was to help it to get to the investment-ready stage. That is why it is reflected in the way it is in the parliamentary agreement, and that is what the Greens and Labor Party committed to.
The proposal put forward by the Business Council and the Canberra Convention Bureau to progress the Australia forum to be investment ready by 2016 includes a schedule of activity which was commissioned through Ernst & Young and outlines the steps which need to be followed to get to that point. That gives us a clear roadmap. As Mr Barr has noted in his amendment, progress is being made. A site has been chosen on City Hill, and the Australia forum group has committed to work towards a design to suit the site.
I am sure if a whole lot of roads were involved in the project we might have seen some federal funding last night, because clearly that is a big focus, or perhaps if Canberra were losing a whole lot of car manufacturing plants we might see some more investment. But, unfortunately, this very good proposal which is being driven by the private sector in the ACT and which will help to diversify our economy was not seen as fit for help to move it forward with a minor contribution from the federal government. We are not talking millions and millions of dollars here, the sorts of figures that we are seeing put on motorways in other cities. We are talking about a handful of millions of dollars to enable a development to keep moving forward in a way that, in the commonwealth scheme of things, is affordable.
It is very disappointing that the commonwealth government has not seen fit to support this project. In other cities where significant job losses occur we see an outcry and we see significant transitional funds being put in to help develop other industries. But not for Canberra; that does not seem to be the way that this city gets treated by the federal government.
We know from international experience how important it is to build the right building in the right place. In the context of the overall city to the lake development, the City Hill site will work very well—it is close to the city centre, it is within a five-minute walk to the lake, it is located close to the theatre precinct and some of the major hotels that are already here, and it is close to shops, cafes and restaurants. The other alternate site had been one down by the lake. My personal observation was that that would be a spectacular site as well, but I have been swayed by the argument that being closer to the rest of the facilities in and around the city has a lot of merit.
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