Canberra needs better health, education, debt management and city planning long before it needs a new stadium, especially on one of the national capital’s most valuable public sites.
I expect that ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr will moderate his enthusiasm for a stadium on Commonwealth Avenue, even if the land in question is being presented as a gift, and the claim of the costs of building a substantial closed-roof arena well below any estimates made by the ACT government in recent years.
I am sure he would like to have a stadium, and the sooner the better. But it would seem far better if it were pressed upon him by public demand and fervour, given other problems on his plate.
Put simply, the ACT cannot afford it now. It’s drowning in debt, with no plan and no prospect of much bringing it down. That’s because of the tram, perhaps a noble idea in theory, but one which is sucking up taxpayer money at an enormous and continuing rate. The tram is the legacy of the old Labor-Green coalition – it was one of the conditions of Shane Rattenbury’s joining the government, and perhaps the government could now stop new stages of the project or slow down its development.
But even if that liberated some spending money, there would be many voices saying that building a stadium would not be the next priority, whether as a capital or a recurrent expense. Barr found money to build the tram by heavy borrowing and by severe cuts in spending on hospitals and health care, and on schools and vocational education. It shows in the poor quality and quantity of services available, particularly to citizens most in need.
Barr yearns for a stadium. Over his career, he has returned to this cause repeatedly. Eight years ago, I mocked his desire by quoting from the Book of Proverbs and Paul Keating: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so does a fool return to his folly”. It might be a fitting memorial to his public service to the territory. But his plan has had to wax and wane according to the times, and the budget. He is currently talking about repairing existing infrastructure well past its glory days. But the time has not yet come again, with or without the gift – if it is to be a gift – of the Archbishop’s house on Commonwealth Avenue.
There is a case for a new stadium of some sort. But that no more requires or suggests that it be located on the premier artery of the national capital, least of all when one bears in mind that it will be unused 95 per cent of the time and will inevitably be in the middle of an economic desert, as similar stadiums are all around the world. There is a space near Civic that could meet all the requirements without becoming a blot on the horizon. That is in the area around North Oval, near the ANU, a space better adapted to the movement of patrons. And a stadium, when built, should stand in line with other budget priorities, rather than having some privileged claim.
It’s not even anything like a top priority
Even if the ACT government were able to achieve a massive cut in expenditure, or a massive infusion of revenue from more taxes and charges, that might not allow for the repair of health and education and other budget problems. Indeed, there’s a very good argument that the ACT government should be looking to retire debt to reduce the interest bill on existing debt. We can no longer borrow at low interest.
Those trying to make an economic case for a stadium will assure us that a new modern stadium, close to Civic facilities, will bring in tourists by the million, who will spend thousands – collectively millions – in Canberra shops, restaurants and hotels, and airlines. But whether in Canberra or in other capitals wanting circuses for the masses, the arguments are often dubious. Tasmania is coming to realise that Albanese’s promised stadium will be a noose around its neck. It is noteworthy too that the economic cases inevitably seem to mean that it is the public which must bear all the cost and all the risk, while the relevant activity is conducted for untaxed profit by private enterprises. They should be making a sizeable contribution.
We could expect that the football stadium might be in use perhaps once a week only (teams such as the Raiders and the Brumbies play away) and there are probably limits to the number of occasions on which a covered stadium would be in use for vast concerts.
For 95 per cent of the time, however, no turnstiles will be clicking, and no commerce would be occurring within. It will be an economic dead zone. Experience everywhere else suggests that there will be no aggregation of shops, fooderies and taverns. Even the sports media – in every city on earth the most dedicated advocates for such ‘free’ facilities – rush off to file when the game is over. Patrons of the football may be grateful for the proximity to Civic but will walk from the venue to the fleshpots, such as they are, of London Circuit. In the same way, there is little active commerce around the MCG in Melbourne or the SCG in Sydney.
About 15 years ago, a previous chief minister, Katy Gallagher, now the federal minister for finance, made an almost weekly spectacle of announcing and re-announcing plans to extend Civic towards the lake. There was no mention of a stadium as such, and the idea of a real estate development for rich childless couples in the old carpark area was hardly mentioned either. Bar a few difficulties, such as crossing Parkes Way, it seemed mostly an imaginative scheme for getting Civic workers outdoors for lunch and after work.
One could imagine that Civic would mature to the point where such an extension seemed natural and planned. Civic was filling up with workers as the Commonwealth dropped controls over where public service departments could locate themselves, and large numbers of departments relocated to Civic and Barton. Departmental executives seemed to care little about higher rents and the expense of parking for ordinary public servants: the higher ranks had parking provided. On both the western and eastern sides of Northbourne Avenue, canyons of office space were built, often with restaurants on the ground floor. The architecture and streetscapes are dreary and uninspired, as befits a city with the highest standard of living on earth, and a planning and development establishment of the lowest ambition and calibre.
Despite the increase in working population, Civic did not expand much.
Civic is dying, and football stadiums won’t fix the problem
Indeed, Civic has contracted, and particularly away from the south, which is to say the lake. Commercial business activity in Civic is declining too. (And it’s not the fault of London Circuit roadworks.)
There are now offices and commerce up to Haig Park, but much of the old Civic is now a dead zone. There are some offices around the old Boulevard area and Constitution Avenue, but a dearth of shops and pedestrian traffic. The economic activity around Garema Place has slowed markedly – it will probably not be much helped by the new hotel. Retail activity west of Northbourne has much declined.
Most shopping occurs inside the Canberra Centre, which has progressively strangled a once vibrant city centre, particularly of boutique owner-operated shops. The shops inside are mostly franchises. That is natural because the leasing system inhibits the ability of small entrepreneurs to build turnover and acquire goodwill. That and security of tenure is largely extracted by the centre management.
Canberra planning and development has not been a triumph of public and private cooperation. Even the framework of plans by Walter Griffin has been mucked about with no aesthetic, social or economic advantage. Government has virtually abandoned any controls over what is built and has long ceased to seek any integration of purpose or function in particular areas. The greed of developers and the government’s willingness to bow to development interests has seen badly missed opportunities for a more liveable and sustainable city in what should still be, but hardly any longer is, a bush setting. The problem is not a program of densification or adaptation to change, including climate change, but limited imagination, low standards and the government’s (and community’s) unwillingness to govern a national space, and to give the community a built environment capable of inspiring. Civic is 100 years old this year and has perhaps 10 buildings of enduring architectural or cultural merit. None were built in the 21st century.
It is a good thing that the Catholic archbishop is open to relinquishing land the Catholic Church should have surrendered once it abandoned plans to build a national cathedral there. It is and was a premium part of a national space, and should be used for some great national purpose, worthy of its position. Pending that, it should probably be joined to Commonwealth Park. It should not be a mere vacant site available for the passing fancies of politicians, or lobbyists, of limited imagination. Even more so if one of the occupants is to claim naming rights for the stadium. Can we imagine the McDonald’s Stadium?
Once the current national immigration and refugee hysteria is over, it could, indeed, be a site for a transplanted Statue of Liberty now that the US seems to have no use for it.
Republished from The Canberra Times
John Waterford AM, better known as Jack Waterford, is an Australian journalist and commentator.