Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Canberrans won a huge victory recently when Finance Minister Matthias Cormann abandoned the government's plans to uproot the immigration department from the Belconnen Town Centre, where it has been since the 1970s. Moving Immigration out of Belconnen was always a daft idea. Since it has been proposed, the Canberra community has been up in arms. Over 3,000 Canberrans signed a petition, which my office put together in conjunction with Labor MLAs in the ACT.

Canberra's urban design is based on principles laid out by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin over 100 years ago. It recognises the value of town centres and, rather than piling all the jobs into the centre of town, recognises the value in having centres such as Tuggeranong, Woden, Belconnen and Gungahlin which have not only services available but also good employment bases.

The attempt to move Immigration out of Belconnen threatened this very notion. It would have seen 4,000 staff taken out of the Belconnen town centre and would surely have caused small businesses in Belconnen to shut up shop. For all their talk about supporting small business, the ACT Liberals jeopardised the future of many Belconnen businesses by threatening to move Immigration out of Belconnen.

Our communities need to have thriving town centres. The community response was overwhelming to this crazy move. It was an indication that the community saw better than the ACT Liberals that a strong Canberra requires good, diversified jobs right across our great city. This is a win for the community. It is a win for common sense. But it is a shame that it has taken over a year, in which my office played a small part through our steady drum beat of weekly media releases calling on the ACT Liberals to do the right thing.

We will continue to be asking questions as well about a fundraising dinner which was held by Senator Zed Seselja and Peter Dutton on 1 September 2015 at the Boat House restaurant. That dinner reportedly charged attendees $995 apiece. According to news reports, there were about 10 attendees, of whom six were property developers. The invitation to the dinner 'invites you to an exclusive dinner with Senator Zed Seselja and the Hon. Peter Dutton MP'. Canberrans are reasonably asking: would such exclusive access by property developers to the minister have been allowed under any circumstances? The minister cannot hide from answering questions about this dodgy fundraising dinner raising money for the ACT Liberal Party.