Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Federal Police, along with other Australian police forces, do a very good job under often difficult circumstances. That is why it is important to bring a level of intellectual rigour to police work, which the Australian Institute of Police Management at Spring Cove on North Head in my electorate seeks to do. But the fact that we need these sorts of establishments does not mean that one of the most environmentally sensitive sites in the country should be the place for a massive new hotel for police conferences. Spring Cove has been the site of the Australian police college since 1960. At present, the college comprises a handful of heritage buildings and some large temporary buildings of the type common in military establishments. But the Australian Federal Police are proposing a three-storey redevelopment comprising, amongst other things, 55 hotel suites, 47 car spaces and other major works on a site which is home to the endangered long-nosed bandicoot. It is also the only penguin-breeding colony on the mainland of New South Wales.

I want to congratulate the Australian Federal Police for the efforts that they have made to consult with the local community, including local members of parliament, but I want to send a very clear and unambiguous message to the AFP and the new government that this development should not go ahead. This is a $20 million-plus police hotel in the midst of a national park in the most environmentally sensitive site imaginable. I am referring to page 11 of the AFP statement of evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Public Works. This development, it says:

... will create an environment that is appropriate for the long nosed bandicoot and will present a greatly enhanced image of the campus ...

How can a 55-suite hotel and a 47-place car park be a better environment than regenerated bushland for the bandicoot, for the penguins and for the other wildlife in this area?

I want to respectfully say to the AFP and to the government that this development is a potential public relations disaster to rank with the Haneef case. We do not want the good work that the AFP undoubtedly do to be compromised by public perceptions that Constable Plod has blundered into the most absolutely environmentally sensitive spot imaginable. There is an alternative. While the proposed works are taking place, the Australian police college is relocating to the School of Artillery just a few hundred yards up the road. The School of Artillery site is secure, it is available, it is far less environmentally sensitive and it should be much cheaper as it does not involve any new construction. If the new Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts is serious, he should oppose this development. If the Minister for Finance and Deregulation is serious about saving money, he should stop this development. I say to the members opposite: let us save the bandicoot, let us save the penguin, but let us most of all save the money by stopping this unnecessary development.