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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4271 ..

adjudication in the course of the day was how important music is to the education of our children. There is a great deal of literature about the importance of music and how music helps children develop other academic skills. I note that the federal government has an initiative to incorporate more music into curriculums, especially the primary school curriculum.

As things currently stand, less than 40 per cent of children in primary school have access to music as part of the curriculum. I think the ACT does better than that average but we can always do more. We see from the research that children who have access to and some immersion in music have better fine motor skills, increased literacy skills and better than average social skills. This is in addition to the cultural awareness and sheer enjoyment that children get out of performing.

Over my few years of involvement with the Miles Franklin Music Festival I have observed the sheer pleasure that the kids get out of participating. My youngest daughter participated for, I think, the second time and it was very interesting to see the range of emotions that she displayed during the course of a day: getting up and wondering, “Will I practice or won’t I?” getting close to performing and being terrified and irascible because of stage fright; but going into the room and, like everybody else, rising to the occasion and performing pretty well.

All of these kids get experience that is of great benefit to them and will live with them for a long time. Isabella came home and talked about it afterwards. She said, “Yes, I really was a bit scared beforehand but it was really fun and I’m glad that I did it.” She will be back next year.

I commend Tanya Nelipa, the principal of Miles Franklin, all the fabulous staff, the parents who run the scheme, the parents who volunteered on the day and made it happen, the people who run around and deliver bits of paper, and the fabulous adjudicators who gave up many hours of their time to give great and positive advice to hundreds of children who went through the school over the weekend.

City West master plan

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (12.57 am): Mr Speaker, I was very pleased to see that the government’s and ACTPLA’s City West master plan was highlighted in the latest edition of the Urban Design Forum, a little brochure that comes out every couple of months. The document, which is produced by Urban Design Forum Incorporated and distributed across Australia through the Planning Institute of Australia as well as the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, highlights and gives some exposure to the government’s City West master plan.

It is very pleasing to see that once again planning policy and planning projects in the ACT are getting some national attention. This document is read by planners, urban designers, architects and landscape architects across the country. The coverage is a fantastic credit to the quality of the City West master plan that the government released earlier this year.

So my congratulations go to the staff of the ACT Planning and Land Authority who have been involved in the development of the master plan. It is great to see that there has been

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