Page 4094 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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There is no question that this city needs its own State-type library to carry out a range of functions that are not provided at the moment. We are under considerable pressure from the National Library to take over what are legitimately Territory functions. We need a library, not just the municipal-type library, but a State-type library that will function for Canberra citizens. As an associated development, and very much integrated with it, we need some art gallery space - not of a major nature at this stage - and some territorial museum space and heritage space combined.
These are matters of some importance. We have to take steps in this direction to provide Canberra with the sorts of facilities that all States have, and these are properly matters that will benefit - if there is to be a benefit - from the casino project. We will have more to say about those matters in our major report that we now indicate is not far away.
Mr Speaker, as is customary I want to thank the members of my committee who I believe have worked very hard and with some anxiety, as they have shared the anxiety about making quite significant decisions. I want to thank the secretary of the committee, Mr Ron Owens, who has guided us through that research effort. I believe that what we are recommending here today is quite significant. The recommendations also point to the need for a unified plan for that whole area. Further developments should not be piecemeal, but should be part of a total coherent total cultural precinct. I will allow my colleagues to elaborate on that or on other points.
MR STEFANIAK (10.43): Firstly, may I start by endorsing the comments of our chairman, Mr Wood, in relation to our committee secretary, Mr Ron Owens. I will add my personal comments in relation to the three gentlemen I worked with on the committee - the chairman, Mr Bill Wood; Dr Kinloch; and our committee secretary, Mr Ron Owens. It was a pleasure to work on this committee, Mr Speaker. We certainly did deliberate long and hard and worked very hard over a number of months to bring down this interim report. At no stage was there any real problem on this committee, and it was certainly a pleasure for me and an honour to be part of it. I intend to speak on only a couple of points because our chairman, Bill Wood, has covered the general thrust of the report very ably.
Mr Speaker, as a result of the committee visiting State theatre complexes in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart and Melbourne, it became quite obvious to us when we looked at the usage of the Canberra Theatre, at the size of Canberra and at the cost of those theatre complexes and also at the numbers of persons visiting those complexes, that at this stage in Canberra's development a 2,000-seat lyric theatre really would not be an economically viable undertaking for the ACT Government. That is not to say that a 2,000-seat
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