Page 2045 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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I think this is more of a Dorothy Dixer about what the government is actually doing to address the needs of the community. We will continue to. There are many issues across the community—many hundreds and thousands of issues that are raised with me—on a monthly basis. We have to assess those based on the best evidence and based on the priorities across the whole ACT community.
We are looking at that one. I am sure that, following that traffic assessment, there will be recommendations about what measures need to be put in place to address the issues there once that study has been completed. That just shows the approach the government is taking—an evidence-based approach—to address the needs of the community and deliver services.
Municipal services—Canberra Street Art Festival
MS ORR: My question is to the Minister for Transport and City Services. Minister, can you please outline the goals of the Canberra Street Art Festival and how it will support artists?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Orr for her question. I am really excited about this new festival. I was very pleased to announce the new festival that will be taking place in November of this year. Running from Friday, 5 November through until 7 November. Canberra’s first street art festival will see some of the blank surfaces in our city become canvases for colourful urban creations. The name of the festival, Surface, is about encouraging Canberrans to dive beneath the surface of each mural to explore the deeper meaning of the artwork.
As Ms Orr indicated with her question, this is just another example of how our government is supporting artists and local businesses following quite a difficult year, particularly for businesses in the CBD and the Braddon area, which have had to adjust to more people working from home. That is why the core of the festival will be held in the Braddon-Civic area so that festival goers can more easily move between artwork sites in a central location.
At present the festival production team is identifying potential blank walls and liaising with owners to get permission for their use. I should mention that locations will only be included in the festival with the full consent of property owners. Anyone who has been out to Braddon recently will know that there are quite a few new developments with some very large concrete blank walls that will be a fantastic canvas to add colour and texture to the area. I look forward to announcing the locations of the community canvases closer to the festival, with a list of at least 15 walls identified.
MS ORR: I have a supplementary question. Minister, how is the government supporting and encouraging involvement from the Canberra community?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Orr for her supplementary question. When the festival gets underway, we will see local and interstate artists working across several days to paint their wall canvases with colourful textures and wild surfaces. This builds on work already undertaken by our government. Over the past 12 months the ACT government
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