Public servants let down the community and the government by maintaining they had done a detailed analysis showing a 25-metre pool in Phillip would be suitable for Woden when they had done no such thing, Sport and Recreation Minister Yvette Berry conceded on ABC Radio on Tuesday.
Ms Berry was responding to a report by the Auditor-General which found no needs analysis was done to justify changes to the Territory Plan which allowed a 25-metre pool on the Phillip site instead of the existing outdoor 50-metre pool. The report also found that public servants misrepresented their case by suggesting they had done a detailed investigation which proved the smaller pool would accommodate the growing Woden community.
"I would say on this occasion, yes, there was an expectation from the community there would be a more detailed analysis and that didn't happen. So I understand the community feeling like they were being let down there," Ms Berry said.
The minister later added: "I think the public servants who were in the public service at the time have recognised that and they know that they let the government down".
In October 2022, ACT bureaucrats raced to change the draft Territory Plan so that any future developer of the Phillip swimming pool site would have to provide a 25-metre pool rather than a 50-metre pool because a smaller pool would be cheaper to build and run.
The changes went through just weeks before developer Geocon bought the lease to the Phillip site in December, 2022. Geocon later released plans to develop the site with hundreds of units and a 25-metre indoor pool, instead of the existing 50-metre outdoor pool. The first of three proposed stages of development for the site has been approved, comprising 286 units in two, 13-storey towers. Geocon hopes to eventually build close to 700 units on the Phillip site.
The Auditor-General's report did not explore whether Geocon had approached the government or public servants seeking a change to the Territory Plan that would reduce the size of the swimming pool required at the Phillip site.
"I'm not aware of any meeting of that kind occurring," Ms Berry told Ross Solly on Tuesday.
"I certainly didn't meet with Geocon back in those days. I have met with Geocon more recently but that will come out in diary disclosures and everything anyway about the ice skating rink and the Phillip pool more generally and their time frames but I'm not aware of them meeting with the government.
"I don't know about the public service, so I couldn't say yes or no."
She later said public servants in "her areas" had not met with Geocon at that time.
Save Phillip Pool Community spokeswoman Sarah Ransom said the group was "disappointed but not surprised" by the findings in the Auditor-General's report.
"The report makes clear that Phillip pool has been seen by planners as an impediment to development, not a critical community asset, since at least 2021 and as far back as 2008 when the former lessee was finally granted a 99-year lease," Ms Ransom said.
The group said the community had lost confidence in the processes providing aquatic facilities to Woden.
"The government should acknowledge the damage done to public trust over the Phillip pool saga," Ms Ransom said.
"We are calling on the ACT government to not approve phase two of development on the site, which would demolish the 50-metre pool, until an appropriate replacement facility is open."
Yvette Berry was the sport and recreation minister and Mick Gentleman was the planning minister on May 20, 2021, when Ben Ponton, the then director-general of the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, approved a ministerial brief based on "future aquatic facilities on the [Phillip] site in light of potential redevelopment".
That included the possibility of a 25-metre pool if "it is considered difficult to make a 50-metre indoor pool viable structurally".
The brief included the need for "a detailed aquatic facility planning study" as a precursor to any changes to the Territory Plan requirement for the PSISC (Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre) site".
"The ministerial brief recommended that the ministers 'agree to a planning study being commissioned by the government to determine whether the loss of the existing Phillip pool will detrimentally impact public access to swimming facilities for the Woden community'. The Minister for Planning and Land Management and the Minister for Sport and Recreation agreed to the recommendation," the Auditor-General's report read.
But the Auditor-General found that the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate (CMTEDD) never commissioned the study, with the public servants believing the need for the changes to the Phillip pool site was already "well understood" and there was no need for a detailed analysis.
"CMTEDD did not provide evidence formally documenting the decision to not proceed with a planning study as agreed by the minister for planning and land management and the minister for sport and recreation in June 2021 nor evidence that a decision to not proceed with a planning study had been communicated to the ministers," the Auditor-General report read.
The Auditor-General also found that public servants made misrepresentations when responding to community concerns around the future of the Phillip site.
"In response to community concerns on the changed Territory Plan requirements for the site, a consultation report (September 2023) noted that 'a sport and recreational needs analysis has determined that 25m pool and associated aquatic facilities would meet the requirements of the Woden community'. A sport and recreation needs analysis was not undertaken as described. The assertion was incorrect and misrepresented the nature and extent of analysis that was used to support a change in the Territory Plan requirements for the [Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre]," the report read.
On Tuesday, Ms Berry said the government, for its part, had at the time accepted the advice of the public service on face value and wasn't trying to "trick" the community.
"You do put a lot of confidence in the public service. On this occasion, they didn't do the report they were required to do," she said.
Ms Berry was also asked by a listener, Louise from Save Phillip Pool Community, if the government would pause development on the Phillip site until a true analysis was done of the aquatic needs of Woden, including a cost-benefit study on keeping the existing 50-metre pool.
"No, the government doesn't have that kind of power to be able to stop a development in the way that Louise is suggesting and I'm sorry that that might not be the answer that she's after, obviously," Ms Berry said.
"However, the government has committed to build a new outdoor 50-metre pool, or a pool, at Phillip, as well as the indoor pool that Geocon will include in their development.
"And we're developing a strategy as well and we've already been deep in consultation with the community about the terms of reference for the consultant as we develop that strategy ... I know it doesn't make up for what's happened in the past, but it is something."
Save Phillip Pool Community has made a submission to Ms Berry regarding potential sites for a new aquatic centre in Woden and requested a meeting with her.
"The minister's office is yet to provide a date for that meeting," Ms Ransom said.
Save Phillip Pool Community remained "willing to work closely with the government to start work on the new Woden pool, while advocating to protect the current facility as critical community infrastructure".
"Phillip pool is a green space in a rapidly densifying part of Canberra, where it is a needed community amenity," Ms Ransom said.
"Phillip pool is just the latest community asset passing into private hands in the area, resulting in a loss of green space, and forcing people into cars and away from Woden for sport, recreation, and social and community needs."
An ACT government spokesperson said: "Minister Berry will meet with the members of Save Phillip Pool Community group and has been in touch with them recently around the aquatic strategy. There are no plans for the ACT government to redevelop the existing Phillip pool site. The site for a new 50-metre outdoor pool in Woden, announced earlier this year, has not been finalised yet".
Ms Berry said the government would accept the recommendations of the Auditor-General, which are:
