Page 1182 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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question then the answer is no. I do not believe it is part of the process of developing a government arts policy to involve people in that formalised fashion. I doubt very much, for example, whether Ms Follett's arts policy involved that kind of process. I have no doubt that she spoke to a great many people about what ought to be in a sensible arts policy. That is exactly what we have done as well. I would be interested in knowing whether there was any difference at all in the approach taken by this Government and that of Ms Follett during the lead-up to the last Assembly election.
I am quite proud of the process whereby we have developed this policy. It has had, for the most part, very positive and favourable comments. I stand by it. I think it is a very good policy and I hope we will be building on that to provide a high-quality arts environment for the ACT.
MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I wonder whether Mr Humphries would be so kind as to provide the Assembly with the names of the people he consulted with outside of the Alliance Government in relation to the development of the policy.
Mr Kaine: Sit down, you clown.
MR HUMPHRIES: I certainly would not, Mr Speaker.
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; the Chief Minister has just referred to Mr Berry as a clown. I wonder whether he would withdraw that in the same way that I withdrew the foot-in-mouth comment.
Mr Kaine: I withdraw it, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Chief Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, no, I certainly will not provide the names of those people who were consulted in that process. It was an informal process; people provided frank and open information on the basis of confidentiality.
Mrs Grassby: If it is open, why can't we know about it?
MR HUMPHRIES: You can have your two bob's worth as well, Mrs Grassby, if you want to make a submission to the Alliance Government on its arts policy, I can assure you. If you want to put a view privately to the Government about what ought to be done then we will take that into account privately as well. I do not think it is appropriate. I mean, I would not ask you to provide me with the names of all those people that you consulted about all of your policies.
Mrs Grassby: Why not? We usually did. We did it all the time. We had open government, though; that was the difference.
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