The ACT will abandon a new national convention centre unless the federal government helped foot the bill, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said this week.
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Mr Barr suggested the project would cost close to $900 million - although the figure is well outside any estimates to date, and pitches the convention centre at a similar cost to the $940 million tram from Gungahlin to the city.
Mr Barr referred to a 2015 rapid business case, which put the cost of the Australia Forum, to be built near Capital Hill and London Circuit, at $433 million.
"The reference design came in close to double that," Mr Barr said, speaking at an ACT committee hearing. Under questioning from the Liberals, Mr Barr was seeking to justify his decision this month to shelve plans to spend $8 million in the coming budget on preparing an investment-ready proposal for the centre.
In fact, the reference design, released at the same time as the rapid business case, estimated the project would cost $500 million to $700 million, although Mr Barr's office said on Monday that costs would undoubtedly be higher than the $500-$700 million, given two years had passed.
The rapid business case said for every $1 spent, the convention centre would bring benefits of $2.40. Mr Barr said once the cost moved considerably beyond $400 million, then the cost-benefit ratio fell.
The ACT's contribution would be the site on London Circuit and the money made from selling the existing convention centre for redevelopment.
He would push for federal funding as part of negotiations on a "city deal", but did not believe the Commonwealth was "fair dinkum about supporting the project".
"If they're not interested, and there's every indication to date that they're not, the nature of the project changes," he said.
"It's no longer a national convention centre that the federal government's contributing to. It becomes a discussion in the ACT government about what's an appropriate Canberra convention centre for a city of 400,000 people."
Pushed by the Liberals' Jeremy Hanson to explain what the Commonwealth had said to suggest it was not interested, Mr Barr said it had shown "a failure to engage over the last six years" when he had spoken to numerous prime ministers and treasurers.
"The test I'm applying to it now is that we have a process for a city deal, the Commonwealth has said yes, we want to sit down and work out the infrastructure needs of each capital city.
"We will raise this through that process and if there isn't an outcome through the city deal, there won't be an outcome for this project," he said, insisting the convention centre was "not my top priority, it never has been" and the ACT would not enter "an arms race with Sydney and Melbourne for the biggest convention centre in the nation".
The $8 million of work removed from the coming budget would have employed "a range of consultants to undertake a bunch of further work that wouldn't have added greatly to the case for the convention centre", he said.
The rapid business case said it was seen as "an urgent core need if Canberra is to continue to grow and develop". The current centre could not host large conferences and could not keep pace with centres in other states.
The convention centre was to be a landmark building in the City to the Lake project, sitting astride a new land bridge across Parkes Way, and looking down Commonwealth Avenue towards Parliament House.
