E&OE Transcript

Radio Interview

ABC Radio Canberra Breakfast with Saskia

Tuesday 9 September 2025

Saskia Mabin 

Joining me in the studio is Canberra MP, Alicia Payne, welcome to the program.

Alicia Payne MP 

Thanks for having me. Saskia,

Saskia Mabin 

Thank you for being here now with your member for Canberra hat on what's your view on the Garema Place upgrades at the moment? Are they progressing as they should?

Alicia Payne MP 

Yeah. Well, I think it will be very exciting when it's all finished. And I think, you know, to the man you spoke to yesterday, if he's in his 40s on he will not have to wait, he will definitely see it soon. Yeah, there is a lot of change going on in civic at the moment, and I do really feel for the businesses that are impacted, but I think it is part of building, you know, a better city center, and we will see the benefits of that in time.

Saskia Mabin 

Some of the businesses, and I'm talking about hospitality businesses, are concerned that the benefits might not be as great as anticipated given the seemingly mass exodus of public servants away from the city center. There's the ATO DFAT. They're moving 1000s of public servants away from civic to Barton, the Department of Home Affairs staff on Constitution Avenue, relocating to Belconnen and Brindabella Park. Are you concerned there'll be a lot of empty office buildings?

Alicia Payne MP 

Well, those movements have been on the cards for several years, and they're not It's not uncommon for these, you know, relocations to happen, and it's part of the you know, federal government's focus on the, you know, public service being flexible and responsive to evolving needs, particularly as particularly as work patterns shift, but I do acknowledge that that is going to have a big impact. And so my office is my electorate office is in civic, and I'm often chatting to Yeah, the coffee shop owners and other businesses in civic and I do appreciate that they are having you know that it can be very quiet for them at the moment, and it is a very challenging time, but I hope that there will be other, you know, other tenants that will move into those offices. And part of the sort of revitalization of Civic is about making that an attractive place for people to come and work, and also for people to come back into the office, you know, like it is about, you know, obviously we have embraced more flexible work, and that probably means there's a lot more work from home. Well, it does mean that there's a lot more working from home happening. But as you know, civic develops, it might be more attractive to people to come in and be in there and make use of those businesses.

Saskia Mabin 

There has been some talk about those spaces that have been left vacant by DFAT and ATO being quite not custom built, but really tailored for large office space, and that maybe that would be difficult for smaller businesses to to fill or to make it relevant to their own business practice. Do you think that these empty spaces can be reworked?

Alicia Payne MP 

Well, I hope so. I must admit that's not something you know that I'm that that would really be up for the people, up to the people who own those buildings, and you know how they can manage transitions to different sorts of uses. But hopefully that is something that you know they'll be flexible with to encourage people back into the city.

Saskia Mabin 

My guest is Alicia Payne Canberra. MP, you are the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the national capital and external territory. So they were talking about Norfolk Island, for example, places that we think about around election time, but they're on your mind sort of more often. I remember it was six months ago you were asking for submissions about the national capital and making it a place that we're all proud of. And there were hearings to do with that in June. What did you learn from that process?

Alicia Payne MP 

We did that as part of our inquiry. It was called fostering into fostering the significance of the nation's capital, and we handed down a report to the government with recommendations around you know, how the federal government it's important to note that the focus of this committee is, of course, federal government responsibilities for the capital and external territories, as distinct from ACT government. So we made a range of recommendations. You know, one of the key recommendations was that the federal government invest in the new convention center for Canberra, and I was really pleased that we have, of course, the Albanese government has committed to that and working with the ACT government to make that a reality, because that's going to be a game changer for our city. So that was probably the key recommendation out of that inquiry, and one that. That I'm very proud our government has adopted. But what that broader process was about too was, you know, as the member for Canberra, I get to talk to so many passionate Canberrans about our city, which, of course, has this dual role. It's a It's our Community, and it has the same challenges and needs as any other community, and part of the role of our representatives in the federal parliament is to make sure the Federal Parliament knows that. But we're also the nation's capital that belongs to all Australians and has so many special things, our national institutions, our parliament, and it's got this, you know, special planned character and heritage, and it's our bush capital, so this committee is about those things as well. And as the member for Canberra, I meet so many people who you know are passionate advocates and work really hard to make our city what it is people you know from the national institutions, in business, in tourism, and that and community groups, of course, too. And that inquiry was about giving them a voice directly to the Federal Parliament, and then to make those recommendations to the government about what we can do to, you know, foster the significance of the nation's capital. So that was last term. And of course, the committee is reformed each term, and I'm really thrilled to have been re elected to chair that again, because it gives me that sort of unique opportunity as both the local representative and the chair of that committee to really shine a light on these issues. So that's having just started again. I'm really keen to build on that work we did in that inquiry and that report, which, if people are interested, they can get off the parliament website. It's called a capital for all Australians. And so I'm calling for people's views through a survey and holding a forum on Monday night to hear from people about what they would like to see the committee focus on, with regard to its national capital remit.

Saskia Mabin 

So we're talking about national institutions, things that are under the remit of the NCA, for example, we're talking about democracy, heritage, and then also Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling islands. How does that form part of this survey?

Alicia Payne MP 

Yeah, so it's part of, I guess, the committees reflect portfolio responsibilities. And of course, the minister, Kristy McBain is the minister with responsibility for the national capital and also external territories. So last term, we did an inquiry into governance on Norfolk Island, which was an incredibly engaging and interesting process. And we also did an inquiry into Antarctica and Australia's national interests. So it's a broad remit of the committee, and this term, I'm looking forward to, you know, hopefully looking into some of those other islands, maybe issues around climate mitigation for them, obviously, anything we do an inquiry into is agreed by the committee, and even though I'm the Chair, I can't sort of pre empt what we will agree. But those are some of the issues that we may look into.

Saskia Mabin 

Then, do you think it's still relevant for Canberra to have such a big role in governance for those places which feel often so far removed from what happens here?

Alicia Payne MP 

It's an interesting I suppose, with regard to the committee, it is quite separate, like it's quite a separate remit of the committee and of the minister. Of course, Norfolk Island is represented by the member for being David Smith and our senators, of course, so it is, it is part of the ACT, but that has been a long and fraught you know, their representation and their own battle for their own democracy is part of what our inquiry looked into, and they are expecting to have an election next year. I understand it's a long, long story I probably don't have time to get into now, but for those who follow it, yeah, a very important, you know, very sort of fraud issue on how those people can be represented, but also get the services they need, which are, at the moment, provided largely by the federal government.

Saskia Mabin 

And this is something that people can provide their opinion on through this survey that you've opened, someone on the text line wants to know what is the youngest age of those being consulted? Is there any sort of limit?

Alicia Payne MP 

No, I haven't put any age limit on it, and I love to hear from young constituents. So you know, anyone that wants to get in touch and share their views, I'd really appreciatethat.

Saskia Mabin 

And people can come along to this forum that you're hosting on Monday night. What are the details of that?

Alicia Payne MP 

So it's at 6 till 7:30pm at the Griffith Community Center. And people was good. If you can register on my website, there's a link, just so we know how many are coming. And yeah, look forward to that will just be a free flying discussion with me, and I'll give a bit of an overview of how the committee works and the things that we can and can't look into. And then just keen to hear from people

Saskia Mabin 

brilliant, okay, all he is open. Alicia Payne, it's going to be maybe overwhelming, but a good information gathering exercise. And then moving on, when will you expect to have some sort of result from all of this consultation?

Alicia Payne MP 

Well, I think we'll have it open for a couple of months to hear from people. And of course, people are welcome just to email me a submission. You know, some ideas as well around yeah. So I want to have time to consider what people have put forward, and then, of course, the committee would need to consider how we might adopt that. So it could be, again, not wanting to foreshadow what the committee would agree, but it could be a broad, ranging inquiry in which we can look at a range of issues, or we could do short inquiries into very specific issues as well.

Saskia Mabin 

Okay? And people can find the survey on your website as well if they can't come along on Monday.

Alicia Payne MP 

That's correct, yeah. And I might just add quickly to one of the things the committee does is we have a biannual public hearing with the NCA, and we've got that coming up on the 16th, so next week as well, and that's a public hearing that people can tune into, and we talk about all the projects that the NCA are working on at the moment.

Saskia Mabin 

Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time today.