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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3952 ..

“The ACT … needs to take a really good look at the bureaucracy that hampers the staging of major events in Canberra …

“People are turning away from event organisation because of bureaucracy. Canberra is not a big city and there is no reason why we should not be able to get together to find a more simplified process when it comes to organising festivals.”

Mr Wood: What’s he saying?

MRS DUNNE: Listen, Mr Wood. The article continues:

He said a lot of the ACT funding avenues could be consolidated under an umbrella, creating more efficient management structure.

“I see so much duplication and waste of public money in this city and I don’t think it’s right.”

It talks about where Mr Henry was making these comments and then it goes on about Summernats:

The national capital’s second biggest tourism event behind Floriade, Summernats 17 attracted a record crowd of 116,000 people last January.

“It brings in about $12 million worth of business to this city, with the benefits spread widely across the retail, food and entertainment sector.”

Ask the man who runs McDonald’s in Dickson, Mr Speaker. It continues:

He said the success of Summernats demonstrated that Canberra was more than a cultural city.

“It is too easy to become focused on the arts in terms of festivals and the ACT is more than galleries and national attractions.”

Mr Henry said similarities could be drawn between Floriade and Summernats. “Both are about presentation, entertainment and artistic appreciation—all key factors in a successful festival.

“Summernats attracts high energy individuals who appreciate cars, but it is great entertainment as well.”

The thing is, Mr Speaker, that there is a great deal of bureaucratic obfuscation in that almost every time we turn around we find that someone—an event organiser like Chick Henry who really should become an ACT treasure because of the changed appreciation that he alone has brought to Canberra—is constantly finding that this government and the bureaucracy under them are getting in his way when it comes to organising events like this. Perhaps it’s not highbrow enough for us. Because it isn’t taste, because it isn’t a particular taste of particular individuals, it doesn’t mean that we should rule it out; we shouldn’t look down our noses and say, “Oh, it’s not a real festival because yobbos go there.”

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