ACT Labor launched its election campaign on the weekend, announcing $200 million in joint federal and territory funding for a national convention and entertainment precinct and a new aquatic centre in Commonwealth Park. It promised a further $1.5 million to upgrade a Belconnen park.
Federal Labor has committed $31.1 million to prepare the Canberra Convention and Entertainment Centre Precinct for construction on the site of Canberra Olympic Pool, Civic.
The current convention centre was sub-par and unable to host summits, conferences, or entertainment, Senator Katy Gallagher said. Alicia Payne MP, chair of the parliamentary inquiry into promoting and fostering the significance of the national capital, said the facility was inadequate and turning away business.
“For many years, it has been embarrassing that our city hasn’t had a convention centre fitting of a nation’s capital, where we can host international conferences,” Ms Payne said.
The federal politicians and Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the proposed convention centre and 8,000-seat entertainment venue would create jobs, revitalise tourism and hospitality, and put Canberra on the national event circuit.
Labor would commit $68.9 million to design and construct the Canberra Aquatic Centre, replacing Civic Pool — built in 1956 for the Melbourne Olympics — which would be moved to Commonwealth Park. Mr Barr expects the project would be completed in time for the 2032 Olympics.
The precinct is estimated to cost $750 million. The ACT Government would match the Commonwealth’s contribution.
Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley MLA welcomed the funding announcement, but said it was long overdue.
“The $200 million doesn’t involve buying one brick in the construction of the Convention centre,” Ms Castley said. “Judging by how hard it has been to get any costing from the ACT government about Light Rail — and ongoing concerns about the state of the ACT Budget — Canberrans need more details.”
Independent Senator David Pocock, who has long supported a combined convention centre and city stadium, urged both major parties to fund the entire project, “not just what appears to be a costly feasibility study”.
A $1.5 million upgrade of Margaret Timpson Park would provide a new playground, public toilets, picnic tables, a barbecue area, an accessible ramp and landscaping, Dr Andrew Leigh MP said. The upgrade was a local ACT Labor election commitment last year.
ACT Greens candidate Isabel Mudford said her party welcomed Federal investment in the ACT — “Canberrans deserve high quality infrastructure, and sports, arts and entertainment facilities are no exception…” — but said federal and ACT Labor had shirked its responsibility for public housing and healthcare. The Greens believe that taxing big corporations and billionaires would address these problems.
Labor is marketing itself as a defender of Canberra, in opposition to the Liberals, whom they describe as “hostile towards our city and the hardworking people who live here”. They maintain that the Coalition’s proposed cuts of 41,000 public service jobs — now recast as a hiring freeze and natural attrition — would threaten a quarter of ACT workers. Labor also criticised a previously announced (and now abandoned) ban on working from home, which Senator Gallagher said had “gone down like a lead balloon”. Senator Pocock called the Liberals’ reversal of policy “a humiliating backdown on an ideologically driven policy that would have hurt services, people working from home and pushed the ACT into recession”.
The ACT Greens estimate that the proposed cuts would result in 9,700 ACT public servants losing their jobs in agencies including Social Services, Health and Aged Care, and the National Disability Insurance Agency, putting frontline services at risk. Ms Mudford condemned the cuts and called on Labor to protect public service jobs. The Greens say they would reduce spending on consultants by 15 per cent for five years.
Labor MPs objected to opposition leader Peter Dutton’s stated intention to live in Sydney, rather than in Canberra, if elected, calling it “cheap Canberra bashing” and detrimental to the capital’s institutional and diplomatic rôle.
The Canberra Liberals, for their part, have attacked Labor’s budget — referring to it as “Albanese’s tax hoax” — and inflation. They argue that their pledge to halve the fuel excise demonstrates their commitment to easing cost-of-living pressures.
Senator Gallagher said she had fundraised her own $20,000 campaign in 2019, but now faced a contest against Senator Pocock, a candidate who “spends up to $2 million”. Labor had increased its fundraising efforts to keep pace.
“David brought big money to this town,” Senator Gallagher said. “We didn’t have it before. You ran a campaign on the smell of an oily rag on fundraising and local events. […] It’s a bit unfortunate that we’ve got big money in this town in politics, but that’s the nature of modern campaigning.”
If funding is a problem, Senator Gallagher’s team could park her campaign van in front of her rivals’ offices again — as they did outside the ACT Greens’ Braddon HQ in 2022.
