Page 3542 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021
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justified, because we recently heard that that contract has been cancelled. A mere week earlier, the arts minister, before the estimates hearing, defended the progress of the project, as if all was well. I hope that, moving forward on this project, there will be better community consultation and communication with stakeholders and that we will see the fantastic display space, performance space, artists in residence facilities et cetera that we really deserve at the Kingston arts precinct.
We have also been talking for many years about upgrades to the Canberra Theatre Centre. In 2014 there was a feasibility study for a potential new theatre, which accounted for $200,000 between the 2015 and 2017 financial years. In the 2017-18 budget there was $100,000 dedicated to community consultation. In the 2018-19 budget, there was around $1.1 million for early planning, and in the 2020-21 budget another $400,000 was dedicated to the early planning of the Canberra Theatre complex. In the newly-released statement of ambition for the arts, $2.7 million was set aside for the new Canberra Theatre Centre.
I recall, back in 2016, I think, being shown quite reasonable plans for an upgraded Canberra Theatre Centre from the head of a development company who was closely involved with the Canberra Theatre Centre. There have been a range of plans along the way. Once again, we have not seen the result.
The government has put quite a bit of focus on infrastructure in the arts space. Of course, the most important area here is the Canberra artists and creatives themselves, because without them we have no arts community here. The artists do not get the benefit of the infrastructure projects until they are built and ready for them to use, to move into, and until they are fit for purpose. Of course, we have shown over time that this Labor-Greens government takes a long time to deliver on many infrastructure projects. We do need to support our artists and creatives in the interim; and, most recently, we have not seen enough of that.
I do like the promised $200,000 for public art to be created by women and non-binary individuals, but it is not a lot of money when you compare it to some other public art pieces, and there is no ongoing funding for it in the outyears. It seems to be a one-off; indeed, potentially only one artist for one project.
This initiative is just a small step forward in what is needed to make sure that there is more female and gender-diverse representation in Canberra’s public art. You can see for yourself that there are so many statues and murals by men, of men, and that allocating money for just one piece of art by a woman or gender-diverse person will not be enough.
I would also like to draw attention to the fact that we are the only east coast jurisdiction that does not have an Indigenous writers award. My colleague Elizabeth Kikkert and I wrote to Ms Cheyne about this back in August, after hearing from community groups about their desire for an established art prize, and I have still heard nothing back from the minister. The government likes to talk about promoting Indigenous art, but when it comes to responding to a very practical suggestion about ways to do so, we have been met with silence.
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