Page 1435 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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see hundreds of millions of dollars going all over the country. There could be a tiny allocation to progress this to a point where private sector investors would be in a position to be assessed against their proposals for investing, and they could not find that money. It is perhaps even more galling that we have the apologists for Prime Minister Abbott here today, trying to play the blame game and not in any way look at the realistic options for progressing this project to the next stage.
I do not believe it is the responsibility of the ACT government only, singularly. We have already said that we will find the land and make the land available subject to the business case reaching the correct stage. I think that is more than generous of this community. This is the nation’s capital. It is absolutely essential that the commonwealth government, the Abbott government, help build the national capital. That is what this project is about. To this point they cannot see fit to round up a number in their budget paper and allow that work to happen. That speaks for itself.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.56): It is quite revealing that the Chief Minister commenced her speech in this discussion today by saying that they have a strong commitment to the convention centre but finished by saying, “We have not taken ownership, and nor should we.” You have to ask the question: who has ownership of this?
You only have to look around the country to see who is delivering the important infrastructure that convention centres are to know that it is a state responsibility, a state or territory responsibility. The Northern Territory government built a new convention centre. The state government built the convention centre in Brisbane and the Gold Coast convention centre. In Sydney we are seeing an amazing redevelopment where this is so important to their economy that they have pulled down the existing convention centre, or are currently in the process of pulling down the convention centre, and will not have a major facility for three years so that they can have a bigger and better one to meet the expanding need. In Melbourne the state government built the convention centre. In Perth the state government built the convention centre. In Adelaide they have not only built it; they have enlarged it. And they are about to enlarge it again—the third, I believe. The extension to the Adelaide convention facility—the extension on its own—is larger than what is proposed for the Australia forum. This is a state or territory responsibility. We have a government that have been negligent in that responsibility, and they should be condemned for their failure.
It is not as though this is a new idea. It has been there for 13 years. Ted Quinlan acknowledged it in December 2001. Here we are in May 2014, and we have a government that does not have ownership of this project. That will come as a great shock to the business community, I think.
The Chief Minister is condemned by her own words: “We have not taken ownership.” They should. It is infrastructure at the state level that all of the other states have taken ownership of and have delivered in the time that we have been having this debate in the ACT. She talks about “a strong commitment” and having “significantly invested”. She quoted two figures: $400,000 and $800,000. I know that they were welcomed by
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