Page 2431 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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Weston Creek area. For the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition, he might want to acquaint himself with where education is predominantly located—at the Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning in Stirling.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR BARR: Education have services provided out of Stirling, and they have some staff on Northbourne Avenue.
Mr Hanson: Oh, they do.
MR BARR: They do; that is correct. But the bulk of their staff are in Stirling.
The first satellite is located in Gungahlin, and an agreement for lease has been signed for an A-grade commercial building that is due for completion next year. The competitive tender process for the Gungahlin satellite office resulted in a high-quality and innovative design within commercial parameters. Importantly, it offers the government rental savings and asset disposal options from the C and D-grade stock that is currently occupied.
The next stage for us is market testing for hub office accommodation in Civic through the registration of interest document for the provision of about 42,000 square metres. So it is scaled down from the proposal of five years ago. The ROI seeks proposals on a government-owned site, which is part of section 19; on a new building on an existing privately owned site within Civic; or campus-style office accommodation utilising one site or a number of adjoining sites. The rationale for this is to provide the market with the widest possible array of options to bring back to government that provides us with the opportunity for the adaptive re-use of buildings, a new build associated with a project that is already in the pipeline or a new build on government land. It gives us the widest range of options.
This is the first stage of a multi-stage process that will be used to establish a short list of respondents who may be invited to submit a tender in response to a formal request for tender document. There may be more than one phase to the request for tender process, to arrive at a final shortlist and preferred tenderer.
Again, for the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition, it is expected that any building that we need to occupy would need to be ready by late 2018. That is 4½ years away. That is when a lot of our leases expire. We need to make a decision about what we are going to do with future ACT government accommodation to have that option to move in late 2018. At that point, it is envisaged that the territory would enter into a long-term leasing arrangement, with a possible extension, at least 20 years and possibly beyond, though the ROI will also allow proponents to present options for ownership to revert to the government after the end of an initial lease period.
Let us talk about the differences between our approach now and previously. The government will not be capital funding this project. We are simply seeking to lease accommodation, like we do now. The project will be a boost for the ACT economy. A project of the size of a new building in Civic will provide an economic stimulus for
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