Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present the third report of the committee for 2011, entitled Referrals made February to March 2011.I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

I thank the House. On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present the third report of 2011, addressing referrals made from February to March 2011. This report deals with three inquiries with a total estimated cost of $551.9 million. In each case the committee has recommended the House of Representatives agree to the works proceeding. The report also includes the committee's findings relating to a budget overrun in a previously approved work.

The new works are the proposed development and construction of housing for Defence in Muirhead, Northern Territory, the proposed upgrade of the electrical reticulation system at Robertson Barracks, also in the Northern Territory, and the proposed redevelopment of the Australian Defence Force Academy in the Australian Capital Territory. The previously approved work is the construction and renovation of housing at Larrakeyah Barracks in Darwin, Northern Territory, approved by this House in 2009.

I will deal first with the Muirhead housing proposal. This is a very large project which would essentially develop an entirely new suburb in the northern suburbs of Darwin. The committee toured the site and visited a house that is similar to the kind of housing that Defence Housing Australia will build in the suburb. Defence Housing Australia intends to build on 279 lots and sell the other 651 developed but vacant lots.

The committee's major concern with this project is the lack of social and cultural planning. Witnesses at the hearing raised questions about the way in which the new suburb would integrate with existing suburbs and how the design and layout of Muirhead would anticipate the social and cultural needs of its future residents. DHA has not undertaken its own planning to address these issues, and the committee has recommended that it do so for this project. The committee has also recommended that DHA do this from now on for all developments of more than 50 lots.

The committee was able to visit a house that incorporates the design principles that DHA will be employing at Muirhead. In particular, the house was designed to be passively cooled by the prevailing breezes in the area, especially in the dry season. The committee is pleased that DHA is making an effort to utilise cost-effective and cost-neutral design options that make houses both more comfortable and cheaper to cool. At the house we inspected it really made a significant difference to the temperature, as it should to the energy use in that house. DHA told us that it will be the standard it will build from now on. It is something that is worthy of being incorporated in other developments. Moving to the Defence works in the report, the committee considered the electrical reticulation system upgrade at Robertson Barracks in Darwin and the redevelopment of the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. The Robertson Barracks project will ensure there is reliable power to the base, even if the external power supply is interrupted. The project will also provide for additional capacity for future base developments, being aware that there are people who also reside on base. The Australian Defence Force Academy redevelopment proposes new and refurbished facilities that will enable contemporary pedagogy—it is not just about pedagogy, but it is partly about that—as well as providing additional teaching space and improved administrative areas. A major part of the proposal involves the demolition of Adams Hall—that is the large hall where a quite a significant number of public events take place each year—and the construction of a new multi-venue auditorium in its place. The committee sought Defence's assurances that there was no way to reuse the existing hall, and the committee is satisfied that the demolition is based on sound consideration of all possible options. The committee is particularly keen to see the chaplains' space redeveloped, as it is woefully inadequate at the moment. This is very important, given the substantial pastoral care provided by ADFA's chaplains.

The final chapter in this report deals with a project approved by this House on 26 November 2009, the Larrakeyah housing project in Darwin. In early 2011 Defence Housing Australia wrote to the committee to inform it that the budget for the project was insufficient to complete the full scope of works. The committee held a public hearing with DHA on 21 March 2011 to seek further information about how this situation arose. As outlined in its report, the committee is not satisfied with the reasons given by DHA for the budget overrun. In particular, the Darwin market conditions and the project's complexity, cited by DHA as reasons for the budget shortfall, were entirely foreseeable by DHA. The original budget process was not sufficiently rigorous and the committee expects DHA to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

I would like to thank members and senators for their work in relation to these inquiries. And I would like to thank the secretariat, who are in the chamber today. In particular, I would like to thank Senators Troeth and Forshaw for their long service to the committee, as they will both be leaving the Senate—and, therefore, the committee—at the end of this month. I particularly draw attention to Senator Troeth's role as my deputy and acknowledge her counsel and common sense, her fairness and her understanding of the processes, policies and procedures of the committee. I found her input invaluable and I shall certainly miss her. And Senator Forshaw's experience, which is wide-ranging, including of the Senate and a whole range of matters that came before the committee, I also found invaluable, and I will miss him. I commend the report to the House.