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