Page 222 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 May 1989
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I think it is a very important matter that people in the community feel that they have an opportunity to serve in this way, that if they do put their name forward they will be treated on their merits and that the representation on these boards is consistent with their representation in the community. I repeat for the umpteenth time that it is my contention that if we are to have those sorts of ambitions for those boards and authorities 50 per cent of their members must be women.
CULTURAL FACILITIES
MR WOOD: I direct another question to the Chief Minister. I draw her attention to reports today concerning the Edmonds report. There is a report in the "Canberra Times", for example, and it deals with, among other matters, arts facilities in the ACT. Is this important report generally available to the community? Could she indicate its major conclusions?
MS FOLLETT: Mr Wood, I think, refers to the Murray Edmonds report which I released last Friday, and I hope that members of this Assembly have now received copies of it. The need for the report arose because of the arts community's expressed concern about the recurrent costs of the kind of large theatre complex and so on that would be undertaken as part of the section 19 development. Mr Edmonds was commissioned specifically to seek out the views of the arts community and to balance, I guess, the need and the demand for such facilities in the section 19 development.
His report has concluded, I believe quite favourably, that subject to detailed feasibility studies and consideration of design issues there is strong support for the theatre complex on section 19. Local organisations in particular would have most call for the playhouse and the studio space, but there is also a lot of scope for use of the large theatre, particularly by touring companies, major companies and so on.
At present of course, as members will know, not very many of those major productions come to Canberra because there is not a venue large enough to accommodate the audiences that they would need to make it viable. The Edmonds report concludes that the theatre complex would maximise commercial opportunities in order to ensure that local organisations have access to the facilities at reduced costs. I think again that is a very important consideration if we have an interest in our local arts groups, as I am sure all members do.
As the report says, of course, one of the most important aspects of the section 19 development is the need for consultation with affected groups, and Murray Edmonds has concluded quite strongly that the planning, the issues and
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