as posted here
PHILLIP HUDSON NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF
October 1, 2009
THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is building a $14 million White House-style ''situation room'' next to the cabinet room in the heart of Parliament House.
The high-tech crisis centre has been approved by ASIO and will feature secure video-conferencing equipment to allow direct communication across the nation and with diplomatic posts and foreign leaders.
The Howard government considered building such a room and the Rudd Government was urged to do so in a security review last year by a senior public servant, Ric Smith. Construction will begin over the summer and it is expected to be operational by the middle of next year.
The room will be used for dealing with terrorist and national security threats but also to respond to natural disasters and other crises, which could include events such as the global financial crisis. The room may also be used for Mr Rudd to make secure video calls to world leaders such as the US President, Barack Obama, and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
It is understood Mr Rudd stepped up plans to build the room after feeling more ''real-time information'' was needed during the Victorian bushfires.
At present the cabinet room is used, but a report found it has ''limited capacity for ministers to communicate in real time with other decision makers'' and it lacks the technology and support to receive detailed information from national security, emergency and other authorities.
The Government had considered building the centre in a bunker cut deep into the rock under Parliament House but decided to place it next to the cabinet room so ministers could simply walk through a secure door. It will be just metres from the Prime Minister's office.
ASIO has advised the Government the room will not increase the threat profile of Parliament House. Meanwhile, the Government is also building 20 teleconferencing rooms across the nation which will have a dual purpose: emergency communication, but also to slash the airline and accommodation bill for public servants by removing the need for them to travel interstate for meetings
as posted here
This won't stop them. I've found that senior public servants (and politicians) always find excuses to travel, especially to warmer climes over Winter.
ReplyDeleteHoward basing himself in Sydney was quietly popular with senior public servants as they could live in fancy hotels overlooking the harbour for weeks if not months each year.