Fed: Labor clean on Centenary House - Swan

AAP General News (Australia)
02-11-2004
Fed: Labor clean on Centenary House - Swan

CANBERRA, Feb 11 AAP - Lease arrangements for a Labor Party-owned building in Canberra
has been scrutinised many times and no faults found, Labor frontbencher Wayne Swan said
today.

Prime Minister John Howard told parliament yesterday the lease for Centenary House
was ripping off taxpayers by $36 million over 15 years.

The Australian National Audit Office pays $871 per square metre for office space in
Centenary House, compared to $314 for sub-let offices in the same building.

"This prime minister has looked at Centenary House on numerous occasions," Mr Swan
told reporters today.

"Those that have been in the gallery for a while will recall numerous reports commissioned
by this government into the arrangements at Centenary House.

"They, with the use of the bureaucracy, have not been able to find any fault in those contracts."

But Queensland Liberal MP Cameron Thompson continued the attack.

"I want to see Centenary House brought to light," he said.

"When you look at the amount of money, 30-something million dollars, that is just going
from out of the Australian Mint straight into Centenary House, straight into the Labor
Party, why have they got a pipeline to the Mint?"

Mr Thompson said Opposition Leader Mark Latham's proposal yesterday for parliamentarians'
superannuation to be brought into check was a gimmick.

"If he's genuine about issues of dealing with corruption, he'll go to the corrupt practices
within Centenary House, within the Labor Party, that give them a whole bunch of money
to be able to conduct elections wherever they like, to use for any purpose that they like.

"That is corruption."

AAP dep/sb/cjh/br n

KEYWORD: CENTENARY

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