Page 1634 - Week 04 - Thursday, 25 March 2010

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Accordingly, all work has been submitted through tender processes (single select, select, competitive) and with the appropriate approvals. All of the capital expenditure, except for procurement fees, works approvals fees and the like, of around 2 percent was contracted out.

Work undertaken to date includes planning and design work, forest preparation and planting, mulching, irrigation works, civil works (eg dam, roads, events terrace, and central valley works) and site services.

3. The Arboretum project is a very complex project involving a range of expertise from landscape architecture, architects, botanists, horticulturalists, tree surgeons, civil engineers, business planners, bonsai experts and so forth.

The exact percentage expended to date on ‘consultants’ is difficult to determine as many services (surveying, geo-tech, engineering services, signage etc) have been wrapped up in larger contracts. In the first few years the majority of capital expenditure was associated with planning and design, but the percentage of design services has progressively fallen as the master plan has been implemented and forests planted and civil works undertaken. For example, the majority of the capital budget in 2004-05 would have been design related, but the percentage to be spent on consultants has fallen to around 15% of the budget in 2009-10 (including forward planning work).

In relation to the capital budget, funds have been allocated for a range of services including upfront planning and design, including to the winners of the national design competition, Landscape Architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean in conjunction with Architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and incorporating a range of sub-consultancies for engineering and other services, as well as for irrigation design and site superintendency.

In relation to recurrent expenditure, funding allocated to consultants (as opposed to contractors and payments for other goods and services) has been predominantly for tree experts, a bonsai curator for the National Collection, and sundry other experts as required. Of the 2009-10 Budget allocation of $1,020,000 about 20 per cent is to be expended on consultants.

Protection of Public Participation Act 2008
(Question No 618)

Mr Rattenbury asked the Attorney-General, upon notice, on 25 February 2010:

(1) Will the Government make regulations under the Protection of Public Participation Act 2008 to specify the financial penalty for plaintiffs under section 9.

(2) In the absence of express regulations, what existing general regulations can the courts use to work out the penalty as they are required to do under subsection 9(3).

(3) In preparing for the review of the operation of the Act due after 1 January 2012 and required under section 11, will the Government be recording statistics on the number of applications made under subsection 9(4) and the number of plaintiffs ordered to pay a financial penalty.

(4) Has the Government determined which factors it will take into account in deciding whether to exercise the discretion to intervene established in subsection 9(4)(b); if so,


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