The lack of shops and amenities in the Parliamentary Triangle must be examined before paid parking is introduced, according to the parliamentary committee that blocked the building of embassies in Stirling Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A mini-mart should be built for public servants, says Canberra MP, Gai Brodtmann, a committee member. ''Why is it that there hasn't been a closer look at the amenity in the past?'' she said on Wednesday.
The Labor MP is challenging the Gillard government's decision to force workers and visitors to national institutions to pay almost $74 million.
Ministers were aware of her attitude since she was elected, she said.
The joint standing committee on the national capital and external territories convened a meeting on Wednesday after the plan to charge public servants to park in inner Canberra was revealed in the budget.
After accepting a recommendation from Ms Brodtmann, the committee is asking Territories Minister Catherine King to give the go ahead for the new inquiry.
Ms Brodtmann said her view had always been she would not support paid parking unless the issue of amenities was addressed.
''It's the only business district in Canberra without any amenity, as in shops, post office, banks and those sort of facilities that everyone around Canberra enjoys,'' she said.
A future Coalition government could rescind the decision to introduce paid parking in the Parliamentary Triangle.
ACT Liberal senator Gary Humphries, who has campaigned against the proposal, said public servants paying for parking would effectively lose a salary scale.
''Paid parking is a bad idea because it's not the only solution to parking problems around the national institutions,'' he said. ''It fails to acknowledge that services in the Parliamentary Triangle are far inferior to those in the other places where paid parking applies in the territory, namely town centres.
''It effectively will mean that there are thousands of public servants who do not have the luxury of leaving their cars at home and will simply take a $2000 to $2500 hit to their living standards as a result of this.
''The effect of this is that a person who goes to bed as an ASO5 on June 30 next year wakes up on July 1 as an ASO4 - that's the equivalent of what this measure does.
''However, you could put paid parking just at the national institutions because then the public servants would avoid them.''
He said ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher had little chance of securing the funds raised after the ''shocking'' budget.
''She's got no chance with a government which is absolutely desperate with the dollars,'' he said. ''I wish Katy Gallagher the best in that fight, but I think she's got no chance.''
Senator Humphries questioned whether shops or amenities could be established in the area.
Fraser MP Andrew Leigh, who supports the decision, said he understood the concerns of those who worked in the Parliamentary Triangle. ''However, there are broader concerns, such as the danger of the National Library becoming inaccessible to researchers,'' he said.
The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House had problems with commuters blocking visitors from its car park and Questacon recently estimated it lost 23,000 visitors because of its clogged car park, he said.
