Page 3844 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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It is an unfortunate fact, Madam Speaker, that this issue of domestic violence continues to plague our community. It is a very serious problem indeed, and there have been quite extensive consultations on the media campaign that is being mounted. The Federal Police have been consulted; the Domestic Violence Crisis Service has been consulted; the Rape Crisis Centre has been consulted on the presentation of this media campaign. All believed that it would be effective. I do not regard it as a comfortable matter at all. I find the advertisements extremely uncomfortable to watch, but the reason why they cause us such discomfort is that in our heart of hearts we know that they are true. We know that what we are seeing is real, and that is the power of that campaign. That is what has to be addressed if we are going to stamp out this blight on our community. I make no apology for it. I acknowledge that there are people who do not like it, but it will be proceeding.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ARTS AND CULTURE - GOVERNMENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Ministerial Statement
Debate resumed from 13 October 1994, on motion by Mr Wood:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
MR HUMPHRIES (9.18): Madam Speaker, this statement by the Minister a few weeks ago is clearly meant to be setting a scene for next year's election, even to the extent, I notice, of particular mention of the approach taken by the Government in the area of Tuggeranong. I quote from the statement:
Members may be aware that the ACT Government, through a $15,000 grant to the Tuggeranong Community Arts Association, has funded a cultural planner to conduct a cultural mapping exercise and develop a cultural plan for that region ...
et cetera, et cetera. This does smack fairly heavily of an attempt to prove to the electorate that the ACT Government has been a great champion of the arts. I will say this much for the ACT Government: It has been certainly capable of spending a great deal of money on the arts. That money has been available not because of some direct decision to improve funding for the arts per se but because of the fact that the ACT community as a whole has benefited from the receipt of a handsome $19m premium for expenditure on cultural facilities - a commitment made some time ago, in effect, by the committee of the Assembly which considered the matter and recommended that that money be spent in that way.
Madam Speaker, it can certainly be said that this Government has a slogan: "We spent the money". I am not sure that that demonstrates that there has been a great commitment to the arts. In particular, it is worth recording that, in my opinion, the Government has been disgracefully lethargic in dealing with the great opportunities which
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