Page 3781 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Mr Lee then quoted Mr Keating in his cultural statement, as follows:
In the pursuit of both excellence and access to it we will continue to develop the National Museum ...
There is a clear intention by both the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible to proceed with the National Museum. Senator Gareth Evans, who is the Minister representing the Minister for Communications and the Arts in the Senate, also made a statement along the following lines, in answer to a question from an equally hypocritical bunch of Liberals:
So we have decided to treat as a priority the establishment of the Gallery of Aboriginal Art -
he meant Australia -
to establish it as a major physical centre on the Acton site, which is the old Canberra Hospital site - a magnificent site effectively in the centre of Canberra. It will be a stand alone institution involving ATSIC and the Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, with the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia built as part of that. It will be a magnificent facility and it will be at the core and the heart of the clear original concept of the National Museum.
Madam Speaker, members opposite will continue to try to talk down the significant achievement that we have gained for the ACT in the development of the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia; the significant achievement for Aboriginal Australians as well in having their culture and heritage properly collected, properly displayed and interpreted for the first time for all Australians in the national capital.
I know that the Liberals have no interest whatsoever in this matter. Madam Speaker, well may they squirm; well may they try to drown me out. But I maintain my full commitment to the National Museum. I take the creation of the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia as an essential first step and an essential next step. I, for one, will continue to work and to plan towards the full realisation of the National Museum in due course, as will the Federal Government. It is only the Liberals that want to talk the whole project out of existence.
MR STEFANIAK: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Chief Minister, if this is the first step, when are the next steps or stages going to happen, and where?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I do not know how often the Liberals had planned on raising this issue, but quite clearly we have had only recently from the Federal Government the cultural statement. I suggest to you, Mr Stefaniak, that it might be more productive if you went back to your Federal colleagues and got them to ask the same sorts of questions of the Federal Government. The National Museum is a Federal project to which, as a government, we offer support. But it is not our project. We will work and plan for its completion. But we are not responsible for its completion; the Federal Government is.
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