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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1782 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

At the end of the day, it is not an argument you can sustain. After all, these bodies are meant to be accountable to the people of the ACT. Can you tell me, Ms Tucker, what method Lanyon, for example, presently uses to be accountable to the people of the ACT? How is the creativity of those people who are involved in running Lanyon demonstrated to the people of the ACT in an accountable way? I am afraid, I cannot; but I think it could be that, through these people working with a Cultural Authority, they can demonstrate what they are doing to promote a better use of those facilities and a better understanding of how they contribute to the cultural life of Canberra. That is something which should occur, and I would be happy for it to occur. I think it can occur through the Canberra Cultural Authority.

Mr Speaker, it does occur to me that we have one too many bodies in the ACT with the word "cultural" in their title, and we should reconsider that. I would also have to say it is ironic that many of the individuals and organisations which have rushed to the barricades to defend the Canberra Cultural Council's role in the Canberra cultural scene are the very people who have been highly critical indeed of its role in arts policy in the past.

Ms Tucker: That is just an indication that you need to do the work and actually take the opportunity to really find the solutions, because you are making changes.

MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Tucker said I should simply take the opportunity to find the solution. I have been Arts Minister in this Territory for quite a long time; I have been Arts Minister for a total of about four years. If the answer were easy and obvious, I am sure I would have found it by now. I have also discussed it at length with members of the arts community over a long period.

Ms Tucker: In the last week you have.

MR HUMPHRIES: No; that is not true.

Ms Tucker: I am sorry; the Bill, I mean.

MR HUMPHRIES: I have discussed the issue of the Cultural Council - I am talking about that, Ms Tucker - with members of the arts community over a very long period.

Ms Tucker: Yes, I acknowledge that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you. What I am saying to you is that the answers are not immediate and obvious. Mr Moore said in his comments that we should think about whether the Canberra Cultural Authority should be the supreme kind of all-embracing body making cultural policy and running cultural assets, as some people have feared it might be. Perhaps so. I do not venture a view about that because it is not what the Government has proposed. But I do not think the present structure on the other side of the line that we have clearly drawn in this exercise is working all that well. I think we should come back and revisit it.

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