Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government in the Senate, upon notice, on 28 September 2012:

With reference to the Women’s Suffrage memorial within the Old Parliament House Gardens and given that, on 14 March 2012, an internal application was received to extend the memorial timeline:

(a) Who was the internal applicant?

(b) What is the total cost of the proposed upgrade to include the milestones of the first female Deputy Prime Minister, Governor General and Prime Minister?

(c) Was the contract for the work open for tender; if not, why not.

(d) Can a list be provided of all upgrades to the memorial timeline since its establishment, including the date, cost and reason for each upgrade.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question:

(a) The Estate Development and Renewal unit of the National Capital Authority (NCA) submitted an internal application to the works assessment area for consideration.

(b) During 2011-12, the cost of the timeline extension was $22,838 (incl. GST).

(c) No. To ensure consistency with the pre-existing mosaic artwork timeline, the contractor who built the original timeline in 2004, Urban Art Projects Pty Ltd was approached directly to fabricate the necessary components for installation.

Procurement was consistent with Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines.

(d) See response to part b. The timeline has only been upgraded once since its original installation. The NCA was approached by the Museum of Australian Democracy in mid October 2011 to upgrade the timeline. The upgrade took place following NCA works approval being granted in March 2012.