Page 4079 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 September 2017

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(i) both on the Commonwealth Heritage List, which covers heritage places owned or controlled by the Australian Government; and

(ii) historically significant as they were constructed as part of the “Provisional” Parliament House complex for the opening of Old Parliament House;

(3) further notes that if the East Block and West Block offices are privatised, the Federal Government will lose control of the heart of Canberra’s national area and the National Capital Authority will come under pressure to approve unsuitable commercial development;

(4) opposes the privatisation of key buildings and sites in the parliamentary precinct between Parliament House and the Lake; and

(5) writes to the Federal Government urgently calling for:

(a) an immediate halt to the sales processes;

(b) better protection of the nation’s heritage; and

Sadly, the current federal government do not appear to be a fan of Canberra. They have spent the last four years slashing the Australian public service. Large numbers of staff have been cut, pay has been frozen for many agencies and critical services have been deliberately run down. We are now seeing wholesale, or at least attempts for wholesale, relocation of chunks of the Australian public service out of Canberra to what largely appear to be National Party marginal electorates around the country.

On top of this, we now see the current proposal to sell the East Block and the West Block offices, right next to Old Parliament House in the heart of the parliamentary precinct. Both buildings are an important part of Canberra’s heritage and, frankly, Australia’s heritage. The parliamentary precinct between Parliament House and the lake is of national significance, and the blocks themselves are a symbol of the ACT as the home of the Australian public service. I am therefore moving this motion calling on the Assembly to oppose the privatisation of the parliamentary precinct and to write to the federal government calling for a halt to the privatisation process.

Let me start off by talking about the East and West Block buildings themselves and to explain why they are important. If you imagine that you are standing at the Aboriginal tent embassy facing Old Parliament House, that spot is where the celebrations for the first opening of parliament in Canberra were held in 1927. There are quite a few photos of people lined up, of dignitaries speaking and even of a flyover of biplanes. The focus of these photos is, of course, the building we now know as Old Parliament House. But in a few photos, in the background you can see glimpses of the East Block building. It is striking how similar it looks to Old Parliament House, and this is not an accident.

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