Canberra International Airport has hailed unprecedented cooperation between the Federal and ACT governments for the approval of its new Majura precinct a new office complex for 1000 workers.
Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has approved the project, subject to the provision of bus services which the ACT Government will supply on four designated routes from as early as June 2.
The airport's managing director, Stephen Byron, said, "It's a tribute to the ACT Government that they are moving ahead to deliver public transport to the precinct.
"This is a classic case of the airport, the [federal] Transport Minister and the ACT Government being in harmony."
The 20,000sqm of office space to be contained in the new precinct is to be constructed over the next five years on a site next to the Brand Depot outlet at the airport.
Mr Byron praised the cooperation that had resulted from the change of Federal Government.
"There's a new broom on the Hill, and it's sweeping us all up together," he said.
The new bus services will not stop at the airport terminal but will service Brindabella Business Park, Brand Depot and the new Majura precinct.
There are four services: peak-hour express routes from Gungahlin and Tuggeranong and all-day operations from Woden, via Barton and Russell, and from Belconnen via Civic.
The Majura announcement comes as Mr Byron defended the airport for meeting all its planning requirements and as he again criticised successive ACT governments for failing to fulfil their promises to upgrade surrounding roads before now. Giving evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry into the future of the National Capital Authority, MrByron referred to the many occasions stretching back to 2001 on which completion of the road upgrading had been either allegedly imminent or a top priority.
"Every budget had it, the duplication of the road," he told the committee. "So, I'll defend the planning of the airport ... the failure of the [road] plan has been the failure to spend the money and deliver the infrastructure as agreed up front."
Now, however, "the good news" was that the duplication was finally underway, after it had been removed from the ACT Planning and Land Authority to the Department of Territory and Municipal Services. Mr Byron said the ACT Government "had come a long way in the last two years", on both the roadworks and in getting over clashes over the large commercial developments at the airport.
Where his group had on occasions come under fire from Government members, "We're [now] being recognised as making a positive contribution to the ACT."
Mr Albanese said the airport would have to step in if ACTION no longer provided the services that it was set to start from June.
Under this formal condition of approval, "adequate bus service" meant a service that connected the Majura Park precinct to Civic "at times which enable reasonable connectivity with other bus services both at the airport site and to and from Civic and at intervals sufficient to meet demand, in particular during peak morning and afternoon-evening periods".
Mr Byron said the Majura precinct would lead the nation in its environmental systems, with full blackwater recycling and featuring its own power generation.
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