CHAIR —I welcome officers of the Joint House Department and ask for any questions.

Senator FAULKNER —Madam President, I just wonder if one of the officers at the table could let us know where the cricket ground or playing fields outside the Senate door are up to and what the cost of the refurbishment there is.

Mr Bolton —The western formal gardens, as they are termed -

Senator FAULKNER —Which includes a playing field, doesn't it?

Mr Bolton —Yes. It is not a standard playing field in the sense of being able to be used for a formal sporting competition, but it is available as a kick-around space and to be used for volleyball, touch football - those sorts of things. It is also to be available for use by the parliament for any other exhibitions or uses which need a large flat space. It will be completed early in February 2000. It was hoped to have it ready by the end of December, but there were some delays in the supply of some of the stone which caps the perimeter area of the space, and of course there was the Christmas break that you generally get in the building industry. The turf has been in since December 1999, and we would hope to have it opened in the next month or two. The forecast final construction figure is $540,000.

Senator FAULKNER —So that is for the pavilions - that is what they are called. That is the lot?

Mr Bolton —The pavilions were already existing.

Senator FAULKNER —But they have been refurbished, haven't they? Or are they untouched?

Mr Bolton —No, they are untouched

Senator FAULKNER —I see. So what does the actual $540,000 in fact cover, in broad-brush?

Mr Bolton —I bring to the table Mr David Thomas, who looks after that area.

Mr Thomas —I am the Joint House Department Chief Architect. The $540,000 is approximately the contract value of the civil and landscape works project that was undertaken to re-establish the playing field and some perimeter landscape work that was undertaken - that has been installed - around that playing surface. It includes some stone walls and retaining walls. It is essentially civil and landscape in nature - irrigation, that sort of work.

Senator FAULKNER —It seemed as this work was being undertaken- not, I must say, that I looked at it very closely - there was a lot of drainage work and so forth involved in this.

Mr Thomas —Yes, that is correct. The original construction was really not done in any permanent sense. It was material that was available on the site and was placed and seeded. It never really drained properly. If you ever went there prior to this work being done, there was an area of the field that was always boggy and did not drain away, so the field was not really able to be used in a way that enabled the proper use of the whole area. This project is undertaking to provide correct drainage. There is a profile to the playing field that has a crown in the middle so the water drains naturally to the outside to provide the centre space up to a playing field standard.

Senator FAULKNER —When you said `approximate cost of $540,000', is that because the actual contracted sum is a little different to that?

Mr Thomas —No, the contract, through a very normal sequence of events, is subject to finalisation. I would expect it not to be any different to $540,000. It might be $538,000. It might be $541,000.

Senator FAULKNER —I see. Are you confident that this will be concluded by February?

Mr Thomas —Yes.

Senator FAULKNER —For the purposes of the committee understanding this, is it fundamentally landscape, drainage-

Mr Thomas —And irrigation. That is correct.

Senator FAULKNER —Thank you for that.

Senator ROBERT RAY —Are you going to have a grand opening, Madam President?

The PRESIDENT —I thought perhaps the Leader of the Government and the Leader of the Opposition might like to field touch teams or something like that, but I have not had a chance to speak to them yet.

Senator FAULKNER —No, I do not want a touch team for the government.

Senator ROBERT RAY —We hate non-contact sport!

The PRESIDENT —We will think of something.

Senator ROBERT RAY —Could I ask hopefully only one question: where are we up to in terms of the issue of rents for the media space at Parliament House? Can you give us a summary of where we are up to rather than me asking a whole series of questions?

Mr Bradley —I have actually got a further document which I would like to table, if I could, which provides details of where we are at the moment. I would like to table that now. The circumstance is that an independent arbitrator was appointed to determine what the rates for each of the 35 Press Gallery agencies should be. The arbitrator was appointed by the Property Institute of Australia. All parties agreed to be bound by the terms of the determination. The determination was received on 25 January and, subject to a couple of errors that the determinations contained, those determinations now apply with effect from 1 October 1999. We would say that the issue of the actual rates to be applied has now been settled.

Senator ROBERT RAY —Okay. Are there any remits on that, Madam President? Are there any complaints?

The PRESIDENT —I have not heard of any.

Senator ROBERT RAY —Okay. That is good.

Senator FAULKNER —Would I be correct in thinking that there has been some refurbishment in your own office - painting, recarpeting and this sort of thing?

The PRESIDENT —Recarpeting was done in the staff areas last week, not in my office but in the harder worn areas. I was away last week, but I gather that during last week, while they were working in the office and I was not there, they decided to repaint the President's suite, my office itself, and that has been done.

Mr Guilfoyle —And oiled the timbers.

The PRESIDENT —Yes, and they oiled the timbers on the top of my desk and things like that.

Senator FAULKNER —Is this just the normal-

The PRESIDENT —I do not know when it was last painted. It was not painted when I went into it. It did not need painting at that time. It needed a bit of work done after the paintings were recycled after the last election. A bit of that has now been done which had been left previously.

Senator FAULKNER —I assume this is just on the normal program.

The PRESIDENT —The colour has not been changed. It is the same colour.

Senator FAULKNER —You would be a better judge of an appropriate colour than I would, I am sure, Madam President.

The PRESIDENT —No, it is just routine. When was it last done?

Mr Guilfoyle —This is the first time the carpets have been replaced in most of that suite, and it is the first full paint. The timberwork is obviously given some oiling every year because if you do not feed oil timbers then inevitably they will deteriorate. It was just on the routine program, and it was initiated by the Joint House Department itself and not by the President's office.

Senator FAULKNER —Thank you.

CHAIR —Are there any further questions for the Joint House Department? If not, that concludes the examination of the parliamentary departments. I remind you that the committee has set 31 March 2000 as the date for which answers are required, if there are any. I do not think there were. I thank the President and officers for their attendance. For the benefit of the committee, I understand that Senator Hill, who is coming from Adelaide, is not due to land until 10.10, so I suggest we suspend the hearing until he arrives.