Page 2429 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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Those predictions have come true. According to the most recent reports from the Property Council, vacancy rates in Canberra increased from 12.9 to 13.6 per cent. Vacancy in non-Civic areas increased from 13.7 to 14.5 per cent, the highest on record. There is 24,000 square metres of new space to be added to the Canberra market in the second half of 2014, and now what the government wants to do is add tens of thousands of square metres of space at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when there is more office space than ever sitting vacant across this city. It does not make sense.
Why is the government doing this? I have been asking, going around talking to people, and there are a couple of reasons that have been presented to me, a couple of explanations. The government may wish to provide further explanations. One of the reasons is that there is quite a bit of pressure from people to build it. People that want to build a big building see a big benefit in doing that. They want a shiny, new building that they can invest in.
One of those organisations is Cbus. Apparently Cbus—you would remember that is the superannuation arm of the CFMEU, the union—want to get a big asset in Canberra. They want to invest in big, shiny buildings and what they want to do is secure, as would any landlord, a long-term tenant paying a lot of money. Let us understand what this means. If the government is considering this, it means that the ACT government will sign a lease on a building we do not need and cannot afford, to help secure the future of the union’s superfund. The ACT taxpayers, essentially, would be set up to fund the CFMEU and make sure that their super is safe.
My understanding is that the union is affiliated with the Labor Party. Maybe Mr Barr can illuminate us on that but if this is true, if this is the case, Mr Barr can illuminate us. Is this true? Is it the case that this is going to be providing—and there has been pressure on the Labor mates—a sweetheart deal for Labor mates right out into the future? Is that what is going on here?
Mr Barr can refute this. He can tell us, “No, no-one has had any communication with Cbus. We have not heard from Cbus. Cbus is not trying to build this at all.” And I would like Mr Barr, when he speaks, to rule out the fact that a potential proponent of Cbus is sniffing around, wanting to build this. It would be very interesting to hear him refute that, that anyone from Cbus or their associates have had any conversations with anyone in government. I would love to hear them say that; otherwise I think we might have a bit of an inclination as to why there is so much desire from this government to build something big and shiny to support their union mates.
Also, of course, there is light rail. What they want to do is move public servants out of that Northbourne Avenue corridor, which is going to be the light rail corridor, so that they can sell all that to developers to help fund the light rail cost. It helps to offset the costs of the light rail, which we know is a pretty dodgy business case in itself. If you want proof of that, when he was talking about the Gungahlin office block and the need to move bureaucrats out of Northbourne, what Mr Barr said to the Canberra Times in 2012 was:
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