Page 1199 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
February this year saw the launch of the council's discussion paper which preceded this. Since then the council has sought written and verbal responses in order to finalise its policies. It is important to note that by producing this framework and by presenting it to me the council has responded to the challenge set for it by the ACT Government at the start of 1992. It is worth going back to some of the words associated with the formation of the council, which was one of the major recommendations of the ACT Legislative Assembly Select Committee on Cultural Activities and Facilities which tabled its final report in June 1991. To quote from the government response to the final report of that committee:
This new peak advisory body will have wide-ranging terms of reference. It will be expected to foster and encourage excellence and achievement in the arts and cultural activities. It will be expected to promote the development and continued growth of a creative, diverse and dynamic cultural sector in the ACT with appropriate input from the community. It will encourage both public and private sectors to support cultural activities in the ACT, and promote the social and economic benefits of the arts. The ACT Cultural Council will be expected to maintain effective relationships with the Australia Council and regional bodies, the universities and cultural societies and enterprises.
The council grew out of the knowledge that the future support and development of cultural activity in the ACT would need a stronger infrastructure and would need to be pitched towards the future. I congratulate the members of the council on their work. They are a voluntarily, part-time, unpaid group of individuals who have come together with a genuine desire to see the cultural life of our region flourish. I trust that all members will read this document with interest and care, and the Government will respond to this framework in due course. The document formalises a fresh start to the way we think about ACT cultural development. It is a path to our preferred future.
Debate (on motion by Mr Cornwell) adjourned.
PUBLIC SERVICE - PROGRESS TOWARDS SEPARATION
Ministerial Statement
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the progress towards a separate ACT public service.
Leave granted.
MS FOLLETT: I thank members. Madam Speaker, in my statement to the house on 17 December last year I was able to announce that the Prime Minister and I had met and agreed on terms on which the ACT would move to establish its own public service, ending the transitional arrangements included in the Commonwealth's 1988 self-government legislation. I take this opportunity to report to the Assembly on progress. In particular, it is timely to outline the Government's thinking about the sort of public service that we are looking to create. However, I would first like to dispel some myths about the timetable for this important project, and its cost.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .