Page 2440 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014

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It is also worth noting that Mr Barr asserted that all the education bureaucrats are in Stirling, but when pushed on the matter he had to accept and acknowledge that, no, that is actually not true and that a number of bureaucrats work on Northbourne and that they would be relocated. So it would include education bureaucrats, despite the—

Mr Barr: Not necessarily.

MR HANSON: Well, if we are getting rid of all the land on Northbourne, which is part of the strategy, one would assume they are coming into the centre.

Mr Barr: No, we’re not getting rid of all the land on Northbourne.

MR HANSON: That seems to be the pressure to do it.

The other point I put is that this proposal is skewed towards the build option. There is vacant property out there, and I accept that that is in the proposal. It is looking at office accommodation that can be re-used. But by saying that it all has to be in a campus or it all has to be 10 minutes from the Assembly, we know that limits us to a pretty narrow band of options. Certainly there is the potential for an option essentially over the road from London Circuit with people vacating a number of properties. But beyond that, it really limits the scope of what can be done and what would then create the vacancy across the city.

This is not, as Mr Barr said in his speech, providing the largest possible range of options. It is deliberately narrow in its scope to eliminate a range of options and skew it towards the build option. A little bit like Mr Barr wants his nameplate on a stadium at some stage, I think he also wants to be the builder of this building. I say to the government: you have not made the case. You did not make it in 2011; you have not made it now. I know there is pressure on you from people to build it; you did not take the opportunity to refute that. There is pressure on people for you to build this, and some of them are your mates, I am sure. But it is not good for the people of Canberra.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

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