Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak to this motion with particular reference to report No. 6 of 2007, relating to the fit-out of new leased premises for the Department of Health and Ageing at Woden Town Centre. It raises the general question of Commonwealth expenditure on fit-out, refurbishment and upgrading of Canberra buildings for the purpose of housing Commonwealth departments and agencies here in Canberra.

I would like to refer to an article in the Canberra Times dated yesterday—‘AFP dumps new $70m HQ’—because it shows what little care the Howard government is applying to its decision making regarding investment in new and refurbished buildings to house Commonwealth agencies and departments. This story is quite extraordinary because it shows that $50 million has already been spent on this particular project relating to the AFP, which started in 2004, to renovate the Anzac Park West building beside Lake Burley Griffin. Even though the project is still in continuation, it has since been found that it is not going to be suitable for the AFP.

The AFP College in Barton was also renovated by the Australian Federal Police, at a cost of some $10 million to $13 million. That asset was then sold by the Department of Finance and Administration in 1999, for $9 million. It has since been resold for $20 million, with the Police still holding the lease. They will be renting for another five years. This latest bungle with the AFP headquarters and the previous issue with the AFP College in Barton show that there is a great deal of irresponsible attention being paid to these matters in Canberra.

I would also like to use this opportunity to refer to the Centrelink bungle in Tuggeranong—the new building there being too small for the numbers that the Commonwealth is contemplating for it. There is now an intention on behalf of the Commonwealth, as I understand, to extend the Centrelink building. There is another example: AusAID’s new building in London Circuit was cited some time ago now as being inadequate for the fast-expanding workforce of AusAID. All of this paints a very dismal picture of the capacity of Senator Minchin and the Department of Finance and Administration to do appropriate forward planning.

How is it that we get to a situation here in the ACT, the home of many Commonwealth departments and agencies, where this government appears incapable of foreshadowing the size and scope of buildings to house these agencies? Are things changing so rapidly with their decisions to employ more public servants that they are not able to forward plan properly? I suspect it is another sign of hubris in the Howard government and policy on the run, where you have multimillion-dollar decisions being made about these capital investments in buildings and refurbishments that do not match up with the needs of specific agencies and departments. It shows a level of incompetence that is unsurpassed in previous developments.

The other issue I would like to make a point about is that in the past few years we have seen quite a lot of tension between the ACT planning authorities—the National Capital Authority and the ACT Planning and Land Authority. One of the problems is the Commonwealth’s decision making about the location of refurbished and new Commonwealth offices having an impact on the overall plan for the ACT. The case that I would like to raise is the failure of the Howard government to actively contemplate locating any Commonwealth offices or buildings in the new town centre of Gungahlin. I say ‘new’ because, relative to other town centres, it is new. It is in fact not new. Gungahlin has been there for a decade, and people are yet to see any major Commonwealth investment in that area. Why is that important? It is about our town centres and at least some of the people living in those town centres having proximity to their employment.

All of these decisions of the Commonwealth about where they locate buildings—the vast majority of them have been in the central precinct; some of them have been in the airport precinct—have contributed significantly to problems with traffic and parking in the ACT. You can talk to just about anyone in Canberra about some of the choking up that is occurring, particularly coming out of Gungahlin in the morning—a problem exacerbated by the NCA’s decision to interfere with the Gungahlin Drive extension—but also around the airport, an issue we are very familiar with here in Parliament House. I know many of my parliamentary colleagues experience the frustration and delay of choking around that area because of significant growth in office development.

All of these Commonwealth decisions impact on ACT planning matters and yet the Commonwealth not only fail to consult, liaise and come to some sort of consensus with the ACT planning authorities about these matters but still cannot get it right when it comes to their internal planning of the location of these offices and the services that they provide to the departments.

Let me conclude my speech on this point. The ACT is home to a great number of Commonwealth public servants and most of them are very proud of their work. They do their work diligently on behalf of the Australian public and it is very frustrating, I am sure, for them to have to experience this kind of bungle on a regular basis. I can imagine that it would be extremely demoralising for many of the Commonwealth public servants who see mishandling by the Department of Finance in relation to very basic things like their accommodation and office space. My empathy lies with them. We are very proud of our Commonwealth public servants here in Canberra and I imagine that this kind of debacle does not put them in a particularly good frame of mind. It certainly does not help the management of the agency.

The bottom line is that with bungle after bungle like this we are seeing a government that is starting to fall apart at the seams when it comes to even the most basic and practical decision-making processes. The poor planning and lack of management from Senator Minchin means that many of these departments are growing at such a pace that they cannot fit into their current accommodation. Whilst that is good news for the local building industry and construction companies here, it does not do us any justice, it does not do the Commonwealth Public Service any justice and it does not reflect in any way positively on the Howard government that they are so slack and deficient in the management of these refurbishments. It also shows a contempt for the fact that Canberra is home to many Commonwealth public servants. We deserve a better planned vision and better strategic planning on behalf of all spheres of government. In this case it is the federal government that has let everybody down.

Question agreed to.