Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present three reports of the committee and move:

That the Senate take note of the reports.

I seek leave to incorporate a tabling statement in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

Proposed Fit-out of New Leased Premises for the Department of Health and Ageing at the Woden Town Centre; Royal Malaysian Airforce Base Butterworth, Malaysia - Australian Defence Force Facilities Rationalisation; RAAF Base Pearce Redevelopment Stage 1, Pearce, WA

Mr President,

On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present the Committee’s sixth, seventh and eighth Reports of 2007.

The Committee’s sixth Report relates to the fit out of new accommodation in the Woden Town precincts that will bring about a rationalisation of departmental activities into a single office complex.

The Department of Health and Ageing undertook a rationalisation of accommodation in 2005 that collocated most of its activities in the Woden Town Centre centred on Scarborough House.  However, a number of departmental functions continue to be performed in other leased buildings in Woden on which the leasing options are due to expire in mid-2009, and on which there are no further renewal options.  Further, these older buildings do not offer a suitable standard of accommodation and maintenance costs are escalating.

The Committee was informed during the Inquiry that the department’s long-term strategy is to consolidate its central office functions into two sites in the Woden Centre thereby overcoming the problems of older buildings as well as improving operational effectiveness. 

Scarborough House, that was the subject of a fit-out approved by the Committee in 2004, would be retained and a new building constructed and leased by the department for a period of 15 years.  This solution would provide the department with the capacity to locate approximately 3,100 personnel into accommodation and overcome the current fragmentation of staff, as well as meeting future organisational change.

The costs of the proposed fit-out is estimated to be $67million (excluding GST) with occupancy scheduled for 2010.

Mr President, I turn now to the proposed ADF facilities rationalisation at the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base Butterworth in Malaysia.

This project is proposed against the background of Australia’s participation in the Five Power Defence Arrangements that came into force in 1971 as a series of bilateral agreements between Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore.

The arrangements provide the opportunity for the partners to the arrangements to undertake joint military exercises, develop policies and exchange information on issues affecting regional security in South East Asia.

With the removal of direct threat scenarios to the region, the arrangements have increasingly focussed on other regional issues, including global terrorism, piracy, the protection of exclusive economic zones, disaster relief and smuggling of elicit drugs.

Australia’s commitment to the arrangements is outlined in the Government’s White Paper on Defence.

While the basing of Australian aircraft was withdrawn in 1988, RMAF Butterworth routinely supports the deployment of aircraft from the RAAF’s air combat and air lift squadrons, and the Aerospace Operational Group.

Currently there are 241 ADF personnel stationed at RMAF Butterworth.  This number escalates to in excess of 500 personnel during exercises.

The purpose of this project is to replace a number of buildings used by the ADF that over time have deteriorated, and to refurbish others, including transit accommodation, mess buildings, vehicle workshops and ancillary facilities. A new sewerage works is proposed to replace the failed system currently on base, together with general repairs and repainting.

The cost of these works is estimated to be $A23.6 million, with work commencing in early 2008 with completion scheduled for the end of 2009.

Finally Mr President, I would like to move on to Report Number 8, RAAF Base Pearce Redevelopment Stage 1.

RAAF Base Pearce, which coincidently is located in my own electorate, has over a number of years expanded in its role and operational importance. 

The base supports deployments and transit operations for aircraft of the Surveillance and Response Group, the Air Combat Group and supports a training presence from the Republic of Singapore Air Force. 

This project proposes the upgrade of a number of base facilities, and the construction of some new facilities at a total estimated cost of $142.2 million.  According to evidence provided by officials of the Department of Defence, many of the buildings on base do not meet the operational requirements of new technologies or the numbers of personnel now based at RAAF Base Pearce.  Further, the base infrastructure is in need of major remediation works, including works for the delivery of water.

Mr President, the issue of water is of some importance to this region of Western Australia.  The Great Northern Highway corridor within which RAAF Base Pearce is located has been drought-prone for the last few years imposing real constraints over access to water.

While the Committee is satisfied that Defence is aware of the difficulties that are being experienced by local communities and are assessing ways to minimise the impact of the proposed development on the local infrastructure, there are nevertheless some ongoing concerns that the increase in personnel will impact on available water resources, and the overall sustainability of the base.

This issue was the subject of extensive Committee inquiry during the hearing it conducted on this project.  The department informed the Committee that a number of initiatives are proposed relating to water storage that it hopes will reduce the demands of RAAF Base Pearce on the existing water infrastructure provided by the Western Australian Water Corporation.

That notwithstanding, the Committee has recommended in its report that Defence maintain the consultative process with all stakeholders on the vexed question of water, including local government agencies, state government instrumentalities and the local community in the interests of “good citizenship”.

In concluding Mr President, I would like to thank all those who contributed to these inquiries, including my fellow Committee members, officials of the Department of Health and Ageing, and the Department of Defence, and for the assistance of the Committee Secretariat.

Mr President, I commend the Reports to the Senate.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Link to 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.