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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1695 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I do not subscribe to that point of view-I am sure none of us do, Mr Deputy Speaker-but it is important that we have a vehicle for arts organisations to be able to deliver a high-quality product. There are many examples of organisations with an incredibly high-quality of output in this territory which deserve the certainty of knowing that we, as a community and as a government, value their product to the degree that we will say to them, "Show us the product of your output. Give us some evidence of the work you are doing, but annual reapplications for funding for the next three years are unnecessary. We will accept that the quality of output is of such a high order that it will be continuously delivered during that time and there will be a measure of acceptance by the community that they are getting good value for money from these grants."

Some of the examples we could cite of that are fairly obvious. One is the Choreographic Centre. I was very pleased, as minister for the arts, to acknowledge the centre with some greater certainty of funding and a triennial funding arrangement back before the last election.

I admit that I have not seen anything like as much of the work of the Choreographic Centre as I would have liked in the last couple of years, but I have no doubt that the centre has more than repaid the faith and commitment of the government and arts administrators in this territory with the quality of their output. It is both a training facility and a vehicle for new development and experimentation in dance. They have excellent interface with other organisations out in the community and they have tried to operate almost as a peak organisation within the dance community of the ACT. They have done that extremely well. To those involved in producing that output I say well done, and I think it is quite appropriate that they have that triennial funding arrangement in place.

Theatre organisations and theatre groups also benefit from such arrangements. I am not sure at present which theatre groups in the ACT have triennial funding arrangements. Clearly, for theatre, there needs to be a plan made some time in advance for future seasons. Preparation for the hiring of venues and the securing of services of people to provide particular components of a production need to be occurring before the year in which the funding is actually allocated on an annual grant basis. Where you have that kind of arrangement, Mr Deputy Speaker, you need to be able to make sure that the funding is secure on a long-term or medium-term basis. For theatre organisations, clearly that is a very major benefit. As a community, we get a better quality of output because community organisations-

Mr Berry: We yield. We will vote for it.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am very pleased to hear that, Mr Berry. I am sure you have something very important to say about the arts. I do not usually hear it but I am sure that deep down in that breast of yours there is something very important to say about the arts.

I note the fairly trenchant comments made about my colleague Mr Hird for bringing this motion forward. I forget from whom it came, Mr Deputy Speaker, but the suggestion was that Mr Hird had experienced a recent conversion to the arts. I have to defend Mr Hird in this matter. I believe that members need only stand or sit in this chamber for a period of

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