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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 3906 ..

Mrs Carnell: No.

MS TUCKER: I am still not clear whose responsibility it is. It is the Chief Minister's responsibility. Okay. If you are going to present people with a trial, it is your responsibility to see that the methodology is good enough so that people have some sense of the credibility of that trial. Evaluation mechanisms ideally go right through a process, by the way, not right at the end. That way you can adapt the thing as it goes, and evaluate it again at regular points. There was no information about that and that was one of the reasons why there was huge frustration at that community meeting. They were saying, "Okay, if you are going to do this, how are you going to work out whether or not it works?". There was no answer. So we have established that it is a presentation of an idea that is definitely going to happen.

The Minister, Mr Humphries, has addressed the questions about accountability and the Cabinet. There were concerns because there was the impression - Mr Humphries has confirmed this -that there is going to be more time required for this process. The point made by a lot of people at that meeting was that people who work in the arts are often impoverished. They often have to be dependent on grants for their livelihood and they do not have a disposable income. A lot of them do not own a house. They were very concerned to hear that this process might take more time, and that is disappointing.

Mrs Carnell: It does not make any difference.

MS TUCKER: Mr Humphries just confirmed that it may take more time to go through Cabinet, Mrs Carnell, so - - -

Mrs Carnell: The trial, but not the grants. The grants do not depend on the trial.

MS TUCKER: No. Mrs Carnell interjects again that the trial is not about giving out the grants. The trial is a trial of a process which is about how grants are given out. Mr Humphries has confirmed that this new process for giving out grants will mean that the application goes through Cabinet and that this will take a little bit longer. That is a concern for people in the arts community. The financial security of artists is often non-existent. As I said, practising artists are often impoverished. Grants processes are a very significant aspect of their lives. You can reassure that community that this is not going to make it any more difficult for them. That is what they need to hear and that is why I am telling you. If you have answers to these concerns it would be really good if you could give those answers to the community.

I acknowledge that Mr Humphries has a good relationship as Minister for Arts with the arts community and he has explained that it was not his intention to not be at that meeting, but I must say that I think he would have been interested. No doubt he will talk to people about why the arts community prefer to work through a Minister and not the Cabinet. They feel that they can develop a relationship with you. They have had a good relationship with you and the previous Arts Minister, apparently, and they feel that there is more accountability about decisions that are made at a political level. Their concern is

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