Mr MILLS - 2004-12-01
You claimed yesterday that you were consulting the public for their views on the Darwin waterfront development. How can the public have any confidence in your consultation when, at the very same time, you have told the preferred consortium to submit development applications on the land which is still owned by the Territory taxpayer, and financial closure is yet to be reached?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome questions about the waterfront. You are still knocking it, but I welcome your questions.
This is a case of walking and chewing gum. What we are doing is going through a preferred tenderer process. It will take a number of months because it is very complex, there are lots of detailed risk elements to take into account; for example, financial returns to government. All those aspects of the project are taking a number of months.
In the interim, we are looking at the first stage, and those different elements of the first stage - the public amenity, the convention centre - are going through development applications. If the very worst happened and we did not reach financial close on this, they would go nowhere. This is a matter of carrying on one set of negotiations while you do other things at the same time.
Mr Henderson: We will hit the ground running.
Ms MARTIN: We will hit the ground running, as the member for Wanguri said, when we get to that financial close. I am confident we will get there because, when you look at the members of the consortium, they want to have this happen.
Henry Walker Eltin, a really long-term Territory company that wants to make the Territory and the economy grow, and Sitzler are in this consortium. They have the Territory at heart; they want to see the Territory grow. There are so many Territory companies involved in this consortium. They want to see it happen. They have put forward a project that really is a unique response to our tropical environment - it looks forward.
What we are doing is assisting the process. If I talk to any tourism person in Darwin, what they want yesterday is a convention centre, and we are going to make that happen as soon as we can.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome questions about the waterfront. You are still knocking it, but I welcome your questions.
This is a case of walking and chewing gum. What we are doing is going through a preferred tenderer process. It will take a number of months because it is very complex, there are lots of detailed risk elements to take into account; for example, financial returns to government. All those aspects of the project are taking a number of months.
In the interim, we are looking at the first stage, and those different elements of the first stage - the public amenity, the convention centre - are going through development applications. If the very worst happened and we did not reach financial close on this, they would go nowhere. This is a matter of carrying on one set of negotiations while you do other things at the same time.
Mr Henderson: We will hit the ground running.
Ms MARTIN: We will hit the ground running, as the member for Wanguri said, when we get to that financial close. I am confident we will get there because, when you look at the members of the consortium, they want to have this happen.
Henry Walker Eltin, a really long-term Territory company that wants to make the Territory and the economy grow, and Sitzler are in this consortium. They have the Territory at heart; they want to see the Territory grow. There are so many Territory companies involved in this consortium. They want to see it happen. They have put forward a project that really is a unique response to our tropical environment - it looks forward.
What we are doing is assisting the process. If I talk to any tourism person in Darwin, what they want yesterday is a convention centre, and we are going to make that happen as soon as we can.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016