Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon Tony Smith MP, Zahra Nyamekye, from Miles Franklin Primary School, President of the Senate, Senator the Hon Scott Ryan, and His Excellency General the Hon Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, cut the birthday cake on 9 May. (Auspic)
Strategic theme 1–enhance the Parliament’s engagement with the
community
Parliament House 30 years on
DPS is always seeking ways to enhance the Parliament’s engagement with the
community, and what better way than to invite the community to a year-long
birthday party to celebrate Parliament House turning 30?
As part of the lead-up to the official birthday, on the morning
of Saturday 5 May 2018 the Great Hall was host to a discussion on the
architectural, social, political and cultural legacy of Parliament House,
moderated by ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy. In the
afternoon the Great Hall rang to the sounds of an ensemble from the Canberra
Symphony Orchestra, playing an all-Australian program. More
than 1,200 people attended these free events.
Wednesday 9 May 2018 was the official 30th birthday and we celebrated with a
public ceremony on the Forecourt, attended by the Governor-General.
In a moving Welcome to Country, Ngunnawal elder Tina Brown recalled that at
the official opening of the building in 1988 there had been no role for the
traditional owners and the Queen had encountered jeers as well as cheers, as
Indigenous Australians protested against the celebration of the bicentenary
of the arrival of the First Fleet.
‘In contrast to the reception Her Majesty received’, Ms Brown said,
‘[today]
I, on behalf of the Ngunnawal, have been asked to conduct a traditional
welcome and it is I who have the pleasure of acknowledging and welcoming
the
Queen’s representative …’
The Governor General, Presiding Officers and many guests took part in a
traditional smoking ceremony, followed by a multi-faith
blessing and public performance by the ACT Primary
Concert Choir.
Left: The Prevailing Voices exhibition (29 May–30 July
2017) celebrated
the contributions of Indigenous
parliamentarians to the Australian Parliament. (Auspic)
Right: Senior Badu Island artist Laurie Nona, founding member of the Badu
Art Centre and a key figure
in the Torres Strait Islands printmaking community. (Auspic)
Building reconciliation into our daily work
To enhance the Parliament’s engagement with the community, DPS forges
partnerships with other agencies and organisations to deliver visitor
experiences that would not otherwise be possible. One such partnership
delivered the exhibition Sageraw Thonar—Stories from the
South-easterly Season: Contemporary
Expressions of Cultural Knowledge from Badu Art Centre, which
graced the public areas of Parliament House throughout July 2017 and during
the NAIDOC week celebration
of Our Languages Matter.
The exhibition showcased large-scale linocuts by artists from
the Badu Art Centre, in the Torres Strait Islands—visual responses to the
season the locals call ‘Sageraw Thonar’, when the south-east
winds blow. The works featured animal totems and island flora, and explored
environmental and cultural issues central to the experience of life on Badu
Island and were accompanied by both English and Kala Lagaw Ya language
labels — making this the first bi-lingual exhibition at Parliament House.
The exhibition was an opportunity for the artists—Joseph Au, Aiona Tala
Gaidan, Edmund Laza, Laurie Nona, Matilda Malujewel Nona, Michael Nona and
Alick Tipoti—to have their work seen by thousands of Parliament House
visitors, and for visitors to view works from a renowned, but
far-flung artistic community.
Sageraw Thonar was presented simultaneously with Prevailing
Voices, an exhibition recognising and celebrating the contribution of
Indigenous parliamentarians. It featured portraits of current and former
Indigenous parliamentarians, personal stories, footage of first speeches and
other objects of significance. Works from the Parliament House Art
Collection and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, as well as other
public and private collections, were brought together for the first time for
this historic exhibition, further underlining DPS’ commitment to reconciliation.
Parliament of Australia website (Auspic)
Strategic theme 2–respond to the changing needs of the Parliament
DPS pilots secure cloud to introduce next generation digital workspace for
parliamentarians
In line with the DPS strategic theme–respond to the changing needs of the
Parliament–DPS is piloting new secure cloud technology that will allow
parliamentarians and staff to embrace ICT mobility in their work practices.
Secure cloud technology means that DPS can continue to deliver secure and
reliable ICT solutions while increasing the freedom and flexibility of how
parliamentarians and their staff work. This pilot gives parliamentarians and
staff access to their information and data anywhere, any time, on a greater
range of devices.
This pilot is being undertaken by nine parliamentarians and approximately 100
staff and will provide user feedback and information for any potential
future roll-out of the enhanced digital workspace across both
houses of Parliament. New team and collaboration tools including video,
voice, and text communication, shared workspaces, and document collaboration
solutions, recognise the greater emphasis modern work practices place on
digital solutions.
‘The criticality and privacy of parliamentarians’ data has encouraged DPS
to
design new security solutions that scale across multiple device types.’Ian
McKenzie, DPS Chief Technology Officer
This latest pilot is a continuation of the Parliament’s cloud journey, which
has included services for parliamentarians, their staff, and the public.
Nearly 45 cloud based services have been implemented in recent years,
including live webcasting of parliamentary proceedings, human resource
management, venue management, finance and travel requisition, annual
reporting, and secure file sharing.
Parliament House Great Verandah (Auspic)
Improving mobility accessibility in Parliament House
As the Parliament changes over time, so do the requirements and expectations
of those who inhabit Parliament House. In 2017–18, in line with our
strategic theme ‘respond to the changing needs of the Parliament’, DPS
undertook a major suite refurbishment to provide an accessible suite that is
functionally equivalent to other parliamentarians’ suites.
Making physical alterations to Australian Parliament House is no easy
feat—it is a collaborative process between DPS, the moral rights
administrators of the building, and all those who work
within the building.
When upgrading the building to increase accessibility, DPS aims to select
designs that are flexible enough to accommodate future needs. A big
challenge is to ensure that any alterations integrate as far as possible
with the original design intent of the building, so that lighting, the sense
of space, and the design meanings of the original architecture are preserved.
Refurbishment of the Senate suite included modifications to entries and exits
to provide automatic door opening, and adaptation of the suite layout to
allow easier circulation. Adjustments were also made to the kitchenette, the
ensuite bathroom, the flooring substrate, and essential services to improve accessibility.
Further works are being planned to improve accessibility across Parliament
House in collaboration with the other parliamentary departments, the moral
rights administrators, and design integrity experts. These works include
upgrades to bathrooms and changes to the public carpark.
Keep Cups at Parliament House (Auspic)
Strategic theme 3–effective stewardship of APH
A more sustainable Parliament House
As effective stewards of Parliament House, DPS undertook a number of
activities in 2017–18 to improve the sustainability of our operations.
In 2017–18 more than one tonne of surplus food (3,549 meals) from our
catering operation was donated to Canberra’s in need, via our partnership
with the food rescue charity OzHarvest. In addition, more than 77 tonnes
of organic waste was diverted from landfill to a local worm farm for
recycling into soil products.
We now sell re-usable Keep Cups at all our coffee outlets. From
1 January 2018 to 30 June, 25,582 cups of coffee were sold to customers
using their own cup (up from 7,396 for the same period the previous year).
That is about 16 per cent of all cups of coffee we brew.
We have installed a water fountain in the Schools Hospitality Area, to reduce
the use of bottled water by the more than 120,000 school students who visit
Parliament House as part of organised tours each year. All takeaway plates
and cutlery used in our food outlets are biodegradable, and we’ve switched
from plastic drinking straws to paper.
DPS has arrangements to recycle paper, cardboard, printer cartridges, lamps,
used oil, grease, batteries and metal. More than 59 per cent of waste
generated is recycled and the volume of waste sent to landfill over the past
five years was 45 per cent lower than the volume ending up in landfill in
the building’s first five years—an average reduction of 280 tonnes a year.
Almost all of the green waste generated in the 23 hectares of Parliament
House gardens is chipped on-site and used as mulch or recycled
at a local landscape supply facility.
2017–18 was the first full year of operation for the new Parliament
House chillers, which use about 20 per cent less energy than the building’s
original chillers and are helping meet the Government policy of eliminating
the use of ozone-depleting R22 refrigerant. To ‘top it off’, our rooftop
solar panels reduced our CO2 emissions by 57 tonnes in
2017–18.
Parliament House Great Hall (Auspic)
Progress on the Central Reference Document
As custodians of Parliament House, a fundamental objective for DPS is
ensuring that Parliament House and the parliamentary precincts are
appropriately maintained and that decisions regarding building alterations
and replacement of fittings and furnishings maintain the integrity of the
architects’ original design. To inform this work, DPS has engaged Ms Pamille
Berg AO Hon FRAIA to revise and complete the Central Reference Document
(CRD) which, once complete, will provide a permanent record of the
Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp (MGT) Architects’ intent for the design of
Parliament House. The value of the CRD is that it does not offer an
individual or modern interpretation of Parliament House’s design, but is
historical in nature and clearly presents information which was produced by
MGT and other key parties during the building’s lengthy design and construction period.
Ms Berg is currently working with DPS and a steering group to revise and
complete an early draft of the document with the ultimate aim of producing a
comprehensive digital resource. The project poses significant challenges 30
years on from the opening of Parliament House, requiring the location and
collation of a disparate array of source material from various people,
organisations and sources, and always with reference to the Parliament’s
original brief.
Substantial progress has been made to date, with revised working drafts of
the majority of the existing draft complete by the end of 2017–18.
In 2018–19, Ms Berg will begin drafting new material to
round out the publication. Work will then begin to consolidate the discrete
chapters to produce an e-book and possible hard copy publication.
Senior DPS Project Officer David Sinclair Lewis test the
EWIS communication line to the control
room. (Auspic)
Strategic theme 4–effective delivery of the APH works program
The new system helping keep Parliament House
occupants safe
Covering more than 267,000 square metres of floor space, Parliament House is
one of the largest buildings in the southern hemisphere. It is DPS’ job to
ensure that every nook and cranny of the building can be evacuated
efficiently and effectively in the event of an emergency.
A three-year project led by Capital Works Branch culminated in
the delivery of a sophisticated new Emergency Warning Intercommunications
System (EWIS) in June 2018. The system allows operators to communicate
with fire wardens, transmits different emergency tones via the 12,500
speakers located around Parliament House, and incorporates the division
bells and building announcements. The project reinforces DPS’ commitment to
ensuring the safety of Parliament House staff and the thousands of visitors
that stream through the doors each day.
The new EWIS offers a number of key benefits over the previous system,
including improved communications capability between fire wardens and EWIS
operators. Fire wardens can let EWIS operators know that their area is clear
with the simple flick of a switch. Previously, this
process relied heavily on phone contact between wardens and EWIS operators.
With over 140 Warden Intercommunication Phones located around the building,
this new function has made it much more efficient to transmit information,
and frees up the phone lines for more critical
communication updates.
The new EWIS uses state-of-the-art
fibre optic infrastructure to transmit information. The fibre optic
technology means that a signal can be automatically re-routed
to reach its intended destination if there is an issue with its original
path. This makes for an extremely robust EWIS and helps ensure a safe
environment for the thousands of people who work in or visit Parliament House.
Left: The Great Hall skylight. (Auspic)
Right: The Members Hall. (Auspic)
Upgrading security at Parliament House
The past 12 months have seen a massive volume of physical and electronic work
being undertaken as part of an integrated upgrade to Parliament House
security. ‘Effective delivery of the Parliament House works program’ is one
of DPS’ four strategic themes, and DPS is working diligently to manage
resources and deliver this program, while minimising disruptions to building occupants.
One way in which DPS has marshalled its resources has been to coordinate
different activities occurring in the same area. For example, while the
Senate and House of Representatives entrances have been out of action, as
part of the perimeter security upgrade, we’ve taken the opportunity to
refurbish the lifts leading from the basement carparks, to avoid
inconveniencing building occupants twice.
Similarly, when we knew that we would need to remove the Great Hall Tapestry
while the skylight was being refurbished, we jumped at the chance to
undertake an extensive conservation and cleaning program of the tapestry for
the first time in almost 20 years, and to refurbish the
service lift that services the Great Hall at the same time.
And while the scaffolding for the Members Hall skylight work was in place, we
took the opportunity to paint elements of the ceiling that had not been
repainted in 30 years due to accessibility issues.
Other elements of the security upgrade to progress in 2017–18 included
the installation of perimeter security fences and preparations for an
additional public entrance at the front of the building, which will mean
shorter queues during busy periods.
‘We have well over 120,000 school children visit the building every year and
thousands of people attending during peak periods. By expanding the entry
area to include a third screening point and adding this additional entry, we
can provide a more streamlined visitor experience.’ Peter
Coll, Director, Capital Works Branch DPS