Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1166 ..

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, if we are to be on the concert circuit, and we are not at the moment - most concerts miss Canberra - we have to get behind acts, behind concerts, that do come to town. Maybe the majority of Canberrans do not mind not being on the concert circuit. Maybe they are happy to go to Sydney or Melbourne to see these things. I think that is sad because concerts bring dollars. They produce jobs. They produce a level of excitement that I think is pretty important.

I will continue trying to get concerts to Canberra, even if Mr Rugendyke is not happy to. I have to say that they will regularly have to be at outdoor venues simply because we do not have a big enough indoor one.

MR RUGENDYKE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I note that the Chief Minister criticised the Canberra public because of the cancellation of that concert and said that it had jeopardised the prospects of major acts coming to Canberra. Bearing in mind that Canberra has supported hugely successful outdoor concerts before - that is, 20,000 attended a sell-out Pearl Jam concert in 1995 - and also that the majority of Canberrans saw this particular John Farnham concert as Glenn Wheatley simply calling on one of his mates to help make the struggling Bruce Stadium marketing team look as though they are actually doing something positive, will you consider taking back your comments criticising the Canberra public and offer the community an apology?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I did not criticise the Canberra community. I made it clear that if we do not buy tickets early for concerts, concerts will continue to be cancelled and we will not get back on the concert circuit. We are not on the concert circuit. It is quite simple. Most of the major concerts or the major tours that come to Australia, or the ones that are Australian based, do not come to the ACT. Why is that, Mr Rugendyke? Maybe you could answer.

Mr Speaker, the reality is that it is very sad that this concert was cancelled. I am a regular concert attender when things are in Canberra. I often go to Sydney for concerts as well, as I think many Canberrans do. We have to make sure that this sort of thing does not happen again in the future. It certainly appeared to me that the marketing of this concert was good. I think it is a great pity that it has not gone ahead.

Again you come back to: Why, Mr Speaker? Why, when the tickets were put on for a pretty similar concert in Sydney and Melbourne ---

Mr Stanhope: They all want to go to their clubs.

Mr Berry: They want to go to their licensed clubs.

Mr Quinlan: While they still have them.

Mr Rugendyke: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would like to hear this particular part of the answer.

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .