The Canberra Liberals would build a new national convention centre on the site of the Civic pool if elected at next month's ACT election.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee has announced her party would build a new centre in two stages, with the total project expected to cost about $760 million.
The Liberals say they would start planning and design work for the new centre immediately with plans to start construction in the 2026-27 financial year.
Ms Lee said the two-stage rollout would ensure a new convention centre could start running as quickly as possible to meet the city's demand.
The first stage would cost around $510 million. It would be about 20,000 square metres and include banqueting options for 600 people, exhibition and meeting space and a theatre and auditorium space.
"Canberra, as the nation's capital should have a world class convention centre and infrastructure to host major conferences, meetings and other corporate events with capacity for multiple events at a time," Ms Lee said.
"By bringing more business events to Canberra, significant economic benefits will be distributed all across the ACT through tourism, hotel stays and hospitality which will be a game changer for local businesses."
The second stage would expand the footprint of a convention centre to 30,000 square metres and the Liberals have estimated the cost at $250 million.
The opposition said a convention centre of this size could return up to $200 million in economic benefit to the ACT every year.
"Additionally, a new convention centre will create thousands of jobs, increase business investment and tourism infrastructure in the city and enhance the ACT's reputation as an international city," Ms Lee said.
The Civic pool site had been long earmarked for a city stadium, which has since been abandoned by the current government. The Liberals have been hinting at wanting a city stadium but their decision to build the convention centre there would rule this out. The party has yet to reveal their plans for a stadium.
The Liberals would explore options for a new Civic pool in Commonwealth Park, like the current government is planning to do.
The ACT government is planning to build a new convention centre across the current site and the Civic pool site. It would be part of a precinct which would also include an indoor music venue. The venue would not be built under the Liberals plan.
"Today's announcement from the Canberra Liberals is an inferior cut and paste of Labor's plan for a convention and entertainment centre," a Labor spokesperson said.
"Labor's project includes an 7500-8000 seat entertainment centre that supports live music and major indoor sporting events. The Liberal plan omits this important feature.
"Labor's view is that a new pool needs to be built before the existing pool site is re-developed."
A new convention centre has been promised for over a decade.
The government commissioned a reference design and business case for the new convention centre in 2014, which was set to be called the Australia Forum.
Architecture firm, Guida Moseley Brown, was commissioned to provide a reference design for the centre. It was expected to be located on a car park near City Hill, facing Parkes Way.
The project was expected to initially cost $500 million but later estimates, from 2017, suggested the cost would be closer to $900 million.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr reportedly abandoned the project after failing to attract funding from the Commonwealth.
Ms Lee said opposition would seek 50:50 funding from the Commonwealth for the new convention centre and blamed the government for stalling the project.
"A new convention centre in the city has been discussed for over a decade but due to the inaction by Andrew Barr and the Labor-Greens government it has not been delivered," she said.
"With the federal government, a number of national peak bodies and organisations located in the ACT, Canberra is in the box seat and should host more world class events that are larger and more frequent than we are at present."
The government has swatted away concerns about ballooning costs and the potential of the convention centre costing more than $1 billion.
This followed the tabling of a cost analysis report into stadium options, which suggested the government's preferred option of a new venue at Bruce would cost up to $1.8 billion.
The government's infrastructure plan expected the stadium and convention centre to both cost at least $500 million. The stadium was slated to be complete by 2033, while the convention centre timeline was for 2035.
The latest stadium cost projections included a 30 per cent contingency worth $290 million, $495 million in increased costs of materials and labour and $86 million in design fees.
Asked if the convention centre would be subject to the same contingency allowance and escalation, a spokesperson said: "No."
But Sport Minister Yvette Berry, who was the first to quote the new stadium costs in the Legislative Assembly, contradicted that stance and admitted costs for all projects would rise.
"We are seeing construction costs go up quite extraordinarily over the last few years as a result of a range of factors that weren't in our control," Ms Berry said.
"We're still going to see those construction costs continue to grow. It has settled a little bit, but from my experience in the housing space [the costs] are still quite high.
"That's why it's important to go into partnerships with the federal government and other parties ... we can't do it on our own."
