$415m bomb-proof Australian embassy for Jakarta
Mark Dodd | June 18, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WORK on a $415 million high-security Australian embassy in Jakarta will begin
late next year, six years after a Jemaah Islamiah terrorist bombing that killed
five people and injured more than 150 others.
The new chancery will be “bomb-proofed” and house 14 federal government
agencies, 123 Australian and 273 local staff, Defence Secretary Mike Kelly said
today.
Mr Kelly today submitted budget plans for the new embassy with a start date for
construction next year and completion scheduled for 2014.
The current mission is “overcrowded and dysfunctional”, Mr Kelly told
Parliament.
In 2004, a suicide bomber detonated a minivan loaded with more than one tonne
of explosives outside the embassy.
"The government approved the relocation of the Jakarta mission on security
grounds. The new site will enable appropriate setbacks to buildings for blast
mitigation while the buildings themselves will be designed to resist blast,” Mr
Kelly said.
"While the new development is driven by the imperative to provide more secure
accommodation, a rapid increase of staff in the Jakarta mission over recent
years has resulted in the chancery being seriously overcrowded and
dysfunctional.”
Construction is expected to start late next year, subject to parliamentary
approval.
The project will involve construction of a secure compound, including a
chancery of about 20,000 square metres, a head of mission residence,
residential accommodation for 32 diplomats and their families, recreational
facilities and a medical clinic.
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