Mr MILLS - 2007-08-29
Yesterday, you announced your plan to demolish the Chan Building. This demolition has been on the table for 10 years. Yesterday in the House, you also said that your government is one of real plans and decisions. Since you have had 12 months to decide what to do, can you inform the House of the time line for the demolition? Specifically, where will you be housing the government computer mainframe and data storage facilities that are currently housed there, and will there be a proposed purpose-built facility and how much will that cost?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because Creating Darwin’s Future and the announcement yesterday has received overwhelming support. I knew that somewhere there would be some gremlin going ‘nah, nah, I do not like it.’ We have found him. He is sitting in the CLP in the opposition.
I was very clear about the Chan Building yesterday, and said there is a lot of work to be done, to understand the cost of how you deal with our data centre, which is in the basement, and what you do with it in the future. I said, yes, there are significant costs there which need to be looked at. The funding in this year’s budget, $0.25m, is to look at a master plan for State Square which will look at all those elements and properly advise government. I also said that we would not see vast changes to State Square until we understood what was happening there.
One of the delights I had today, after yesterday’s announcement, was to walk back into Parliament House after lunch and take a look at what State Square might look like if the Chan Building was gone, and it is a really wonderful public space. If you take out the Chan Building, it has a great ambience, and it will be – as someone on radio said to me yesterday – a kind of Federation Square for Darwin. If it could be a meeting place like Federation Square, that would be terrific. Member for Blain, I am sorry you do not support the idea of a State Square. There is a lot of work to be done …
Mr MILLS: A point of order; Madam Speaker! Incorrect, absolutely incorrect.
Ms MARTIN: We have to do the master plan.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, are you still answering the question?
Mr Mills: That is false.
Ms MARTIN: No, I thought the member had a point of order so I was sitting down.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms MARTIN: There is a lot of work to be done, and for the member for Blain not to have listened to what I said yesterday and come in and pretend that we have done that assessment - it is an important assessment and there could be significant costs in how we manage the data centre into the future. That does not stop us doing a master plan and working out how we manage that, because if we are looking at the future of Darwin, a public square, a state square is a very important component.
We will do that work. The funding is there, we will do the master plan. There was overwhelming support for the announcements in Creating Darwin’s Future yesterday. When I walked around the venue at lunch time, everyone was positive and, as I said, I knew we would find someone who had a negative attitude towards it. Penni Tastula said: ‘Absolutely fabulous!’. Penni has a disagreement with us about the siting of the Defence of Darwin museum, but reckons the whole plans are terrific. The Property Council’s Allan Garraway welcomed the announcement and was on radio saying that this is about revitalising the CBD, great announcement, likes the planning changes. Karen Brown, a well known voice in the city, said she had strong support for what we are putting in place, particularly the planning changes for better streetscaping, awnings and active interfaces, and welcomed the plans for the future of Darwin. As for the sour faces on the opposition, I am sorry they do not support it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because Creating Darwin’s Future and the announcement yesterday has received overwhelming support. I knew that somewhere there would be some gremlin going ‘nah, nah, I do not like it.’ We have found him. He is sitting in the CLP in the opposition.
I was very clear about the Chan Building yesterday, and said there is a lot of work to be done, to understand the cost of how you deal with our data centre, which is in the basement, and what you do with it in the future. I said, yes, there are significant costs there which need to be looked at. The funding in this year’s budget, $0.25m, is to look at a master plan for State Square which will look at all those elements and properly advise government. I also said that we would not see vast changes to State Square until we understood what was happening there.
One of the delights I had today, after yesterday’s announcement, was to walk back into Parliament House after lunch and take a look at what State Square might look like if the Chan Building was gone, and it is a really wonderful public space. If you take out the Chan Building, it has a great ambience, and it will be – as someone on radio said to me yesterday – a kind of Federation Square for Darwin. If it could be a meeting place like Federation Square, that would be terrific. Member for Blain, I am sorry you do not support the idea of a State Square. There is a lot of work to be done …
Mr MILLS: A point of order; Madam Speaker! Incorrect, absolutely incorrect.
Ms MARTIN: We have to do the master plan.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, are you still answering the question?
Mr Mills: That is false.
Ms MARTIN: No, I thought the member had a point of order so I was sitting down.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms MARTIN: There is a lot of work to be done, and for the member for Blain not to have listened to what I said yesterday and come in and pretend that we have done that assessment - it is an important assessment and there could be significant costs in how we manage the data centre into the future. That does not stop us doing a master plan and working out how we manage that, because if we are looking at the future of Darwin, a public square, a state square is a very important component.
We will do that work. The funding is there, we will do the master plan. There was overwhelming support for the announcements in Creating Darwin’s Future yesterday. When I walked around the venue at lunch time, everyone was positive and, as I said, I knew we would find someone who had a negative attitude towards it. Penni Tastula said: ‘Absolutely fabulous!’. Penni has a disagreement with us about the siting of the Defence of Darwin museum, but reckons the whole plans are terrific. The Property Council’s Allan Garraway welcomed the announcement and was on radio saying that this is about revitalising the CBD, great announcement, likes the planning changes. Karen Brown, a well known voice in the city, said she had strong support for what we are putting in place, particularly the planning changes for better streetscaping, awnings and active interfaces, and welcomed the plans for the future of Darwin. As for the sour faces on the opposition, I am sorry they do not support it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016