Page 4636 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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throughout the ACT Government Service should be consolidated. Administrative arrangements within the ACT Government Service are the responsibility of the Chief Minister, and she will announce separately any details of any new administrative structure.
I am in a position today to suggest that a new such administrative structure would most likely include the existing ACT Arts Bureau, presently in the Department of Education and the Arts, and the Museums Unit and the Special Events and Festivals Unit, both presently in the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning. Similar arrangements under the Arts Bureau have previously provided services to the Arts Development Board, so the new consolidated structure would provide secretariat and policy support to the new ACT cultural council.
Mr Speaker, before mentioning some of the matters which the Government intends to refer to the new cultural council, I would like to make a number of comments about public expenditure on the arts in the ACT. In my preface to the select committee's final report, I said that by not recommending the expenditure of vast sums of money, specifically for a major new theatre complex, the committee demonstrated that it was not driven simply by impulses to spend money or build monuments. I also noted that adoption by the Government of a range of the committee's recommendations would result over time in a substantial increase in expenditure on the arts and cultural activities and facilities in the Territory.
In the committee's view, this increased expenditure would be justified because it would result in real aesthetic and economic benefits to the community as a whole. In this context, members will note that the Chief Minister, in her recent budget speech, announced a capital allocation of $2m for a new community theatre in west Civic, as well as a further $430,000 for refurbishment work at the Canberra Theatre Centre.
The Government faces intense continuing budgetary pressures, but the Follett Government remains committed to reasonable and equitable funding of the arts. Apart from the recent extra budgetary assistance I just mentioned, two other important measures will have a long-term effect on the availability and expenditure of arts funding. These are, of course, the establishment of a more powerful voice for the arts in the form of the new cultural council and the concurrent consolidation of arts and culture, should that proceed.
Mr Speaker, it is proof positive of this Government's commitment to supporting the arts that, despite the continuing budgetary pressures, arts development grants have been increased by 2.9 per cent for the 1991-92 financial year. (Extension of time granted) Overall, the Labor Government has been able to increase total arts funding
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