Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p52
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 52/63)
Character Range: 486275–489179

Works Completion Report: 'Alterations to Parliament House', CRS A976/64, item 52/0239 part 4; Emerton, 'The Case for a Permanent Building', p. 9; Tanner and Associates, 'Provisional Parliament House Canberra: The Conservation Plan', pp. 14-5, 14-8.
    60      CR Fitzsimmons, ms notes from his diary headed 'Parliament House', 22 April 1953, CRS A976/64, item 52/0239 part 4; Tanner and Associates, 'Provisional Parliament House Canberra: The Conservation Plan', pp. 14-9 to 14-11; Emerton, 'The Case for a Permanent Building', pp. 9, 11.
    61      Emerton, 'The Case for a Permanent Building', p. 10.
  Perturbed by the 'never-ending drain on public funds', Cameron arranged a meeting involving himself, Prime Minister Menzies, the Treasurer and the President of the Senate to consider drawing up plans for a permanent Parliament House. Though Menzies was concerned about the continuing scale of the expenditure on the provisional building, the meeting decided that it would be quite improper for any consideration to be given to the erection of a permanent structure at that point in the government's life-cycle. It was agreed instead that the matter should be dealt with as part of the question of the development of Canberra as a whole.62The large expenditure continued and, among other things in 1954–55, funded the provision of additional office space for Hansard staff following the introduction of a daily edition of Hansard.63

  The meeting organised by Cameron resulted in 1954 in the appointment of a Senate Select Committee 'to inquire into and report upon the development of Canberra in relation to the original plan and subsequent modifications ...' The most important recommendation of the committee was that a commission be set up to plan the development of Canberra and carry out a coordinated program of works; this led later, in 1957, to the establishment of the National Capital Development Commission. But, accompanying the committee's report, the new Speaker and the President of the Senate put forward a recommendation that an early start should be made on plans to erect a permanent Parliament House. These calls were incorporated in a report, entitled 'The Case for a Permanent Building', which was issued by the Secretary of the Joint House Department in September 1956. Highlighting the accommodation problems in the provisional building and 'the high and ever increasing costs' of maintaining it, this report observed:

     While the existing accommodation may enable the Parliament to function with reasonable efficiency it must be assumed that the time is not far distant when it must be considered uneconomic and impractical to continue with the policy of adding to the building further extensions or the provision of makeshift accommodation within the building.64

  The initiatives of the middle 1950s appeared to hold out some promise that the government would soon