4AUSTALIA & L F78/ 243 IF
PRIME MINISTER 22 NOVEMBER 1978
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE
NEW AND PERMANENT PARLIAMENT
HOUSE
Mr Speaker, for the first 27 years of its existence, the
Commonwealth Parliament operated in borrowed premises. In
1913 an international competition was announced for the design
of a permanent Parliament House in the new national Capital.
This was first deferred and then cancelled due to the world
war. Since coming to Canberra in 1927 the Parliament has operated
in a house that was intended to accommodate it for a temporary
period. Now that we approach the Bicentenary of Australia's
settlement by Europeans, the Government has decided that funds
ought to be provided for the design and construction of a
permanent Parliament House.
The permanent Parliament House will be the focal point of the
Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 and largely complete the
Capital's principal national constructions.
From 1955 to the present day successive Parliaments and
successive Governments have considered the question of.. a new
Parliament House.
In 1965, a joint select committee was appointed. Its main
recommendation was to proceed with the new and permanent
Parliament House.
To facilitate this it recommended the establishment of a
" clint" committee which in due course resulted in the setting
up of a Joint Standing Committee on the New and Permanent
Parliament House.
For a considerable time a decision could not be reached on a site
for that new building. This difficulty was resolved in 1974 with
the passage of the Parliament Act which declared that the new
and permanent Parliament House will be on Capital Hill.
Since 1975, successive Parliaments have appointed the Joint
Standing Committee on the New and Permanent Parliament
House, and the Committee has undertaken the detailed enquiries
which have led to the decision I am now announcing.
on behalf of the Government, I pay tribute to the Committee for
its detailed and painstaking work over recent years. All
Honourable Members are indebted to the Committee for the way
in which it has advanced this matter.
The Government has given thought to the managerial arrangements
needed to ensure that the project goes ahead efficiently,
and that all parties involved are fully consulted at each
relevant stage.
I take this opportunity to outline to the House the proposals
which will be given legislative form early next year. First,
we intend that, at each major stage in the design and construction
of the new building, the Parliament itself will be the authority
to approve the next step to be taken.
It is essential that the Parliament itself take the important
threshold decisions and we shall ensure this happens.
Second, we believe special and flexible administrative
arrangements will be needed to facilitate the work over the
next ten years. Therefore we have decided to create a statutory
authority to be known as the New Parliament House Construction
Authority to control the design and construction of the
new Parliament House.
It will do so in close association with the National Capital
Development Commission and will be responsible to the Minister
for the Capital Territory.
It will have a chairman and four members, one of whom will be
the Commissioner of the N. C. D. C.
The authority will have available the services of an operations
unit, of skilled professional people located within the N. C. D. C.
drawn from the the Department of Construction and
elsewhere and available to carry out the day-to-day directions of
the Authority.
Third, we propose that the Joint Standing Committee on-the new
and permanent Parliament House should be seen as the advisory
authority on behalf of the Parliament. It will be available
to advise the Authority on any relevant matter and to report
to Parliament if it wishes. In effect it will be a watchdog
on behalf of the Parliament.
Some consequential revision of the Joint Standing Committee's
resolution of appointment may be appropriate, and proposals
will be submitted to the Parliament early next year. The
Committee will continue in operation because an immediate problem
will be the design competition and the advice of the Committee
on this will clearly be needed.
The arrangements I have outlined are designed to ensure that
all the talents needed to advance this great project will be
available in a sensible and co-ordinated way. The interests and
requirements of the Parliament remain pre-eminent and our
proposals are designed to that end.
A procedure for selection of an architect was proposed in the
Joint Standing Committee's third report. In general the
Government believes the procedures set out there are appropriate,
but we feel that the new Authority should also be involved
immediately it is established.
I take this opportunity to foreshadow the intention that a
design competition will be conducted, broadly along the lines
of the recommendations in the third Report. In brief, these
were as follows: invitation to architects registered in
Australia to enter a design competition; selection of a few of
the best entrants for development of their ideas to a second
stage; selection of the winning architect and development of
that architect's design.
The total project cost has been estimated at $ 151 million in
May 1978 prices, and funds will be progressively required over
the next ten years.
Significant expenditure will not be incurred for some years
yet, with the larger annual costs falling in the years 1983-87.
Over the last ten years, in 1977-78 prices, an average of
$ 165 million per annum has been spent by the Government on
capital works in Canberra under N. C. D. C. programmes.
The Government believes that it can encompass the construction
of Parliament House within the same order of annual expenditure
on capital programmes for Canberra over the next ten years, and
the expenditure in relation to the new Parliament House will be
taken into account when decisions are made on other public
buildings.
When this Parliament House was constructed in 1927, it was built
as a provisional accommodation, with facilities and services of
a corresponding standard. Over the years, piecemeal extensions
and alterations have been made to the building. . The total area
is now about two and a half times that of the original building.
All Honourable Members know that this accommodation, having
grown haphazardly over the years, is not suited to the needs
of a modern Parliament. The simple fact is that the
Parliament is hampered in the performance of its works in
this building. It would clearly be extraordinarily difficult
to renovate or modify this building to provide necessary
services and facilities for the years ahead.
I should also say that if a new Parliament House is not
built in the near future, it will be necessary to proceed
immediately with substantial extensions to the present
building, extensions which could not be more than a shortterm
stop-gap.
We believe that expenditure of funds on the present building
other than those for essential maintenance would not be
responsible. As a corollary of the decision to proceed
with the new Parliament House, it will need to be accepted
that there will have to be maximum restraint in respect of
additional expenditure on this building. That will mean
that Senators and Members will have to accept basically the
present facilities in the period until the new building
becomes available.
The Government recognises that this decision not to proceed
with short-term expedients will impose upon all those who
work in Parliament House a further measure of inconvenience.
Nonetheless, we believe this inconvenience is justified in
the interests of finding a permanent solution to the problem
of adequately housing the Parliament.
The design of Parliament House will give an unparallelled
opportunity for the architectural design and building skills
of Australians. Here in the Parliamentary triangle, we have!
our great National Library and the new National Gallery and
High Court are already under construction.
The new Parliament House which is now to be built will take
its place amongst the other great buildings which symbolise
our culture, learning and system of justice. It will be the
centrepoint of modern Canberra, the peak of the Parliamentary
triangle, the hub of the Government of the Commonwealth of
Australia, a place in which the affairs of the nation can
be conducted in a more efficient way.
Australians justifiably take pride in this city, which is
the symbol of our nationhood. The new Parliament House will
greatly enhance the national capital, and it will also be a
focal point for the ever-increasing number of Australians
and visitors from overseas who wish to see at first hand the
centre of Australian democracy.
The symbolic importance of the new Parliament House is made
even more important by our anticipation that the opening of
the building will take place in 1988, the bicentennial of the
first European settlement in Australia.
Since that settlement, Australians by working together as
a people sharing common ideals and a common purpose, have
achieved great things. The decision to proceed now with
the design and building of Parliament House reflects a
confidence in the future, in which the people of this nation
can justifiably share.
The 1980' s, the decade of our bicentennial will be a period
of optimism and excitement, a period of growth and development.
I am certain that in this decade by working together with
determination, with common purpose and the sense of national
unity, which the new Parliament House itself will symbolise,
we can make Australia the great country we know it can be.
I am delighted that the Leader of the Opposition has written
to inform me that the unanimous view of the executive of the
Parliamentary Labor Party is in favour of proceeding with a
new and permanent Parliament House. It is fitting that both
Government and Opposition should concur in their views on
the construction of a House which symbolises our unity as a
nation, which is an expression of our joint pride, faith
and confidence in Australia. OOOO00000000