Page 2898 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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Minister Barr, when asked a question on interest payments, responded:
With the government’s AAA credit rating, it would be lower than the private market.
The numbers do not add up. Nothing we were told during this process adds up. And you only have to go through the process of getting the information to show just how dodgy the government’s numbers are. Mr Smyth, as chair of the committee, would be aware of how the chain of events went.
We asked each of the agencies, as we went through, about the government office building. We asked the Chief Minister and Cabinet Directorate and we were told, “You will get the answers when we have LAPS.” Then we had LAPS. LAPS could not answer any of our questions. They could not answer even the most basic of questions. We asked them for the savings. We asked them for the efficiencies. They could not put them together. In fact, despite not being able to answer any of the questions, one of the officials from LAPS was able to point to a 2001 editorial in the Canberra Times which said it is a bad idea to sell offices.
What are we to make of that? What are we to make of a situation where the government is so sensitive about its numbers that, after we were told officials would be there to answer questions, they could not answer the questions? (Second speaking period taken.) We were told that they would be able to answer questions. They could not answer questions, even the most basic of questions. They knew the questions were coming. They had been put to other departments. What we got was: “There is a 2001 editorial that says it is a good idea not to sell your offices.” If that were true, then we would have seen the incoming federal Labor government suddenly buying lots of government offices. We have not seen it, because it does not make sense.
Then we have the phantom efficiency savings where the consultants were told specifically by LAPS to assume a building efficiency of 88 per cent, despite the fact that the architects had designed a building to achieve 82 per cent efficiency. If you look at the plans you cannot find this efficiency adjustment. It does not exist. But it is worth $26 million. They have conjured up $26 million just by telling the consultants that that is what they will achieve, without saying how they will achieve it. These are dodgy numbers. In fact the estimates committee recommended:
The committee recommends that the ACT Government detail the potential increased cost of the Government office building at 88 per cent efficiency, if only 82 per cent efficiency of the current cost can be achieved, and explain why the consultants are asked to include it and that the Government report to the Legislative Assembly before the project proceeds.
Then we get to the rolled-gold nature of this building. This is a building with a $2 million sky bridge. This is a building with a panic room. This is a building where we will devote $11 million to just the ministerial wing, and this is a $430 million building that, on this government’s record, will blow out beyond $500 million or $600 million, because they have never delivered a project anywhere near the budget that they have set.
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