Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, , 3:19:42 to 3:24:13
Officials provide the final costs and delay details for the Parliamentary Library redevelopment, followed by questions regarding the President's response to allegations of racism within the workplace.
Topics: Workplace culture, Infrastructure
Speakers: Jaala Hinchcliffe, Hon James McGrath, Vance Khan, Speaker 3, Unknown Speaker, Senator Karen Grogan
>> You Thank you. You sure? Um can I go to one of my favorite topics please which is the parliamentary library um which is open.
>> I haven't even asked how many passes we processed.
>> Okay. How many passes have you >> How many passes have you processed? I'm trying to be quick here, President.
>> Thank you, President. I thought I'd I'd left the table. Um Senator, uh at this stage in the new system, we have 79 active uh cards that are um [clears throat] have actually been issued. Um but um in in terms of flow through uh we've got approximately 1,283 applicants for the sponsored access cards still being processed through. So they're in various stages of having just submitted or working their way through.
>> When does the new when do the that when do people have to is it the end of October they have to >> Okay. Right. So um today's date according to my iPad is the 26th of of October. So, uh, that's like 5 days.
>> If they've completed, if they've completed everything on their application and we're satisfied that it's that it's a proper application, they'll be given a temporary they they'll be temporarily extended um,
>> on their existing pass. Yeah. >> So there won't be
>> So there's no disadvantage to anyone [clears throat] um who at the 31st of October has completed an application and we haven't processed it. They'll be looked up.
>> Okay. Okay. I think Okay. That was one of the questions I was going to put on notice actually. So I'm glad we've had this conversation. >> Fantastic. >> I can feel my staff yelling at me. Um cool. Can we move on to the parliamentary library unless the president wants to me to ask any other
>> I'll slip you a note.
>> Thank you. Uh so the Pomemetry Library is now open. Yay. Um it was delayed. Um uh we've discussed this in previous um if you could expand on like how long it was delayed, what caused the delays, and what was the original approved budget for the redevelopment, and what was the final cost, please?
Uh Senator, so um in 2022 the project was approved to reconfigure the ground floor library. [clears throat] At that stage um the uh the total budget for the project and there was a um a second part for that as well. There was a second part of the um of the project which is um another room that was built which caused delays in
>> that was the the secret room on the
other side >> that was another room that was that was built which then caused delays to the the um the ground floor library. Um in that time we were very very lucky to have Mr. Fox appointed as a parliamentary librarian which um is a great privilege and he had the opportunity to be able to um look at the plans for the library, consider them and also um add um some thoughts which I think have been exceedingly helpful uh to what the ground floor library has looked like. Um and then we we commenced and we got cracking with getting the library built and done. We also took the opportunity to do the um some of the uh in the insealing services work that we've been talking about that needs to occur across the uh across the building while we were uh while we had that um that space completely down to the bare bones which has been um very very useful. So, in November 2025, the cost of the ground floor library was estimated by our quantity surveyor to be um $2.7 million. Um we have now delivered and handed over the ground floor library and the total construction cost was uh 2,886,247. >> that includes the um services upgrades um in that cost as well.
>> Yeah. Good. Thank you. Uh
>> are you changing onto a different topic