Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON: FUNDING
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1645
Howard government, not those talking about ‘a great
big new tax’. The synchrotron is funded until the
middle of 2012, but the reality is the Brumby
government’s mismanagement of the synchrotron
means that there will be no funding beyond 2012. The
Labor government did not do the tough work. It did not
do the hard work to negotiate with the commonwealth.
Mrs Peulich — It never does.
Mr ONDARCHIE — Maybe the commonwealth
government was not available via phone. Maybe you
can only ring the carbon tax hotline.
Mrs Peulich — Julia was overseas.
Mr ONDARCHIE — I do not know how much per
call it was going to be, Mrs Peulich. Was it going to be
$10 a call? Was it going to be $40 a call? Maybe with
the Australian Greens it was $100 a call to call the
carbon tax hotline. This is another problem that the
Baillieu government is going to have to fix. I have to
say, as Mr Viney scampers out of the room, that at
official levels we have opened up the process to work
through and resolve this issue. We have opened up the
process. What is the real story?
Mr Leane — That is just childish. Every time one of
your members walks out we will bring it up in our
speeches. It is just ridiculous.
Mr ONDARCHIE — Make no mistake, Mr Leane:
when I left the chamber last week you banged on ad
infinitum about me being out of the chamber during
which time I was meeting a constituent. Mr Leane
should make no mistake: his side drew attention to the
fact that I was out of the chamber last week whilst I was
meeting a constituent — on a motion he brought into
the house.
Let us talk about the synchrotron. What is the story
here? How did all this start?
Mr Leane interjected.
Mrs Peulich — On a point of order, Acting
President, I note that the Opposition Whip is out of his
place and interjecting.
The ACTING PRESIDENT (Mr Ramsay) —
Order! The point of order is upheld.
Mr ONDARCHIE — To be fair, Mr Leane is
actually in the chamber.
The ACTING PRESIDENT (Mr Ramsay) —
Order! I ask both sides of the house not to encourage
interjections.
Mr ONDARCHIE — Let me just remind the house
that the Labor government did not do the hard work to
negotiate funding with the commonwealth. It forgot
about it — ‘Oops, we forgot’. The Baillieu coalition
government will have to fix this problem as well. We
have started to work through it.
Mrs Peulich interjected.
Mr ONDARCHIE — Mrs Peulich, how did this
synchrotron project begin? How did it all start? A
formal bidding process to decide the location for the
national synchrotron facility was conducted by the
commonwealth government, but the Victorian
government of the day — the Brumby Labor
government — pre-empted the process and announced
it would build the facility. It thought it would get the
jump and went ahead of everybody else.
The former Victorian government contributed
$157 million to fund the cost of the synchrotron
machine and the building. The partners involved — the
New Zealand government, the state government and the
university-led consortia of CSIRO and the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation —
committed $50 million in beamline funding, and the
commonwealth government provided another
$14 million. The total cost to build the Australian
Synchrotron was $220 million — $63 million more
than the original proposal. Oops, they did it again.
This government is committed to supporting industries
and institutions that add value to Victoria, including the
Australian Synchrotron. Funding was secured for the
first five years of its operation; that funding concludes
on 30 June 2012. The previous government did not
formally engage with the commonwealth or other
stakeholders regarding the Australian Synchrotron’s
future. There is a bad case of amnesia on the other side
of the house. While they sat there making judgements
about this government they forgot to do the work.
Forget about the Partridge Family; we have the
Amnesia Family over there.
This government is currently working through the
issues to ensure that the Australian Synchrotron can
continue to add to Victoria’s economic development.
Negotiations have commenced with the commonwealth
government and key stakeholders. That is what the
former government failed to do. As with funding for
other lapsing programs, future funding for the
Australian Synchrotron will be addressed in the course
of the 2011–12 budget cycle. Once again the Brumby
Labor government left it up to the Baillieu coalition
government to repair the situation. It just adds to the list