Gary Nairn (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

In fact, I took an interest because I remember speaking on this matter in 1992 or 1993, when I was President of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, and revealing the circumstances under which the Australian Labor Party negotiated the lease. In the early nineties the Australian Labor Party thought they would take advantage of incentives to locate headquarters in the ACT. They decided that they would build a building called Centenary House. The problem was that they did not have anybody to put in it, so they negotiated a lease with the then Keating government. It was a 15-year lease and a guaranteed income for that period of time. The interesting thing was that the rent that was negotiated was way over the top of market rents at the time, and it started before the building was even built. By the time the building was actually built but before anybody moved in, the rent had gone up even further.

The ratchet clause in the lease was a nine per cent increase per annum for 15 years. The nine per cent was applying even before the Audit Office, whom the Keating government negotiated with for the lease, moved into the building.

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