Page 3802 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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rail is coming.” But they do not have a plan for it. They cannot deliver it. Construction will not start. I suspect there will be a couple of strategic sod-turnings just before the 2016 election to make it look as though they are doing something.
Remember, members, that from 2010 Mr Barr was saying, “The worst thing for this economy would be a Liberal government.” You would think he would be prepared. You would think they would have shovel-ready projects. If the government had done their work right, they would have. If they had listened to the business community, if they had listened to the 54 groups that signed up to the proposal for a new convention centre, they could be building the new convention centre today. Indeed, it could be open and capitalising on the fact that Sydney is closed.
Instead, we have a minister who says, “Gut feel: it’s okay; it’s pretty good.” He does not understand or he just ignores the market. In terms of its size and in terms of the configuration of the breakout rooms and the facilities in the existing convention facility, it is not adequate for a town of this size, a city this size. The documents—if he has actually read the documents he tabled yesterday—clearly show that. I think there is more gut feel and the fact is that they just do not want to build it. They have got their own pet projects, whether they are a stadium or light rail. They are the things they want to build; they are the things they are interested in. You should listen to your community. The business community is saying that, if you want additional revenue, you have to build productive infrastructure. Unlike capital metro, where the estimates of the subsidy range from $60 million to $120 million every year, an enlarged convention facility in the ACT—a new, state-of-the-art, high-tech, world-class convention facility—would have allowed us to accommodate those 90-odd conventions that were turned away last year. Ninety!
Let us mirror the approach of the Victorian government. Victoria, which has the largest convention facility in the country at the moment, has decided to make it bigger, because it was turning away business. It is worried about losing market share in a very competitive region. Let us face it: in our region we are dealing with Singapore and Hong Kong, particularly Singapore. We are not competitive any longer. That is the problem. We never attempted to capitalise on the value of conventions and meetings to this city.
It is quite clear in the Australia forum report that the government had a clear case. They are saying that in the best case it might triple. They are saying that in the average case it would probably double the turnover. That puts money in the government’s coffers. It requires additional expenditure on more hotel beds, which, of course, requires staff. A lot of young people start out working in the hospitality sector, whether in restaurants or hotels. That would stimulate activity in the ACT, and therefore the abysmal construction work figures would not be the way they are. Instead, we have a government that, maybe, two years from now, might deliver something.
At the other end of the spectrum, it does not have to be something like a convention facility. We know that the community of Belconnen have a proposal to extend the Belconnen Arts Centre, as you are well aware, Mr Assistant Speaker Bourke. It is ready to go. They would like it to go. There is a DA. Once the DA is approved we
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