Page 4659 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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MS BURCH: Community arts are driven by the competency and capacity of individuals in that role. Just because you have a label of being a multicultural community arts officer does not necessarily mean that you do that particularly well. There is good sense—
Opposition members interjecting—
MS BURCH: There is good sense—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members!
MS BURCH: The question was: does the label make the function work?
Mr Coe interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Coe, that is enough.
MS BURCH: The question was: does the label make the function work? I am saying that it is the capacity and competence of the worker and their connections with the community if you start moving into a regional base.
Ms Bresnan: Mr Speaker, a point of order.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Bresnan, you have the floor on a point of order.
Ms Bresnan: My question was not “does a label make something work better?” It was “are you satisfied that a generalist arts officer can work just as effectively with those target communities as those specific arts officers do?”
MR SPEAKER: Minister Burch.
MS BURCH: We will work with the community arts office over the next 12 months—through the latter part of this year and over the next year—setting up a model and making sure that they are integrated into a regional arts hub.
MR HARGREAVES: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Minister, is it true that you have invited the community arts officers to propose any alternative model they may consider appropriate and is it true that you have actually had discussions with the arts community through the regional arts centres in Belconnen and Tuggeranong?
MS BURCH: I thank Mr Hargreaves for his question. Absolutely. At the meeting when I met with representatives from the Community Arts Office, I spoke with them about the move. It was clearly articulated in the Loxton report and I said to them that, allowing 12 months of transition, there is no question that the funding will end in 2012; there will just be a new way of doing business following the end of 2012.
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