Page 1213 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 August 1989
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The problem is, as I said, the enormous needs for funding to assist cultural groups. The groups are just like politics on the other side of the Assembly. There are factions and petty jealousies amongst the arts community and the real needs are in hidden agendas. We all know that and we see it happen. The appropriate requirement is to ensure that this sort of select committee that I am proposing the Assembly establishes takes note of those particular problems, considers them and gives those groups each a fair opportunity to put their case.
From the Assembly's point of view, what are the issues of substance, therefore, and what can be disregarded in funding decisions? At the moment we do not even have the material in front of us that would allow us to recognise the full range of cultural workers practising in the ACT, let alone the funding needs they have which the Government should or should not be involved in. We just do not know the facts, in a full and informed way, which would allow us to judge whether section 19 proposals or any others which attempt to help the cultural community are the right proposals.
We have to be a little humbler than the report makers of the past and admit that further inquiries are needed. We have to find out what kind of studio and workshop space is available here for dancers, singers and ensemble groups and how much more is required. For example, in the Tuggeranong area we have one theatre, the Erindale theatre. There is a new theatre about to open as part of the Tuggeranong College. That is theatre in the round, an entirely different type of theatre from the one that is proposed for the community centre, or town hall, as I like to refer to it, that is about to be built on the banks of Lake Tuggeranong.
During the discussions that were involved in that particular area in relation to what should and what should not go into that particular theatre, there were considerable discussions as to the nature and size of the theatre. The discussions ranged from some 300 seats down to about 150 seats, and the nature of the space varied as time went on. But it was important to make sure that an appropriate type of facility was put into that particular location. I know the member for Canberra was making some comments in relation to her concerns about the original size proposed, when we were talking about a 300-seat theatre.
Clearly, what came out of that, after discussions with the arts groups that are involved in the Canberra area, was that 300 was inappropriate and that a smaller theatre was required. That is the sort of thing I was talking about; that is the sort of consultation process which is important and necessary; and that is the sort of information, Mr Speaker, that I would suggest is required to be put before the select committee to ensure that, when they make their decisions and comments in relation to what should go on
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