Page 5132 - Week 12 - Thursday, 27 October 2011

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obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, which I have referred to today and referred to on previous occasions. I make the commitment today that all of those documents will be made available to the committee as soon as this inquiry is referred to it so that it can have the advantage of trawling through those documents as well. I believe that we will end up with a good outcome for the arts community of the ACT.

It is unfortunate that we have to do it this way—that we have to come in here and essentially take away from the minister the analysis that should have been done and should have been taken notice of. It is interesting, when you go through the documents, to see that people in artsACT were prepared to be flexible about this and look at the other options. But the minister and the government have closed their minds. This is a great shame for the people of the ACT. If they close their minds on this, what else do they close their minds to?

If the Fitters Workshop had not had the acoustic that we discovered in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Canberra international music festival, it would have probably been a good decision. But once you have that information before you, once you suddenly discover that there is something more that you need to look at it, is reprehensible. It is negligence on the part of this government not to look at it but to say, “We have made our decision; we are going to push ahead with it and we are going to spend nearly $4 million of taxpayers’ money without considering the implications of that.” That is reprehensible. It is unfortunate that we have to come in here today and force the government’s hand on this when it should be open to listening to the people of the ACT.

MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (11.08), by leave: I move:

(1) Omit paragraph (2), substitute:

“(2) refers to the Standing Committee on Education, Training and Youth Affairs for inquiry and report to the Assembly by March 2012:

(a) the best use of the Fitters’ Workshop, taking into account the acoustic qualities, heritage value, its location, cost and community demand of the building;

(b) options for alternative venues for use by a range of community music groups;

(d) any other relevant matter;

(2A) resolves that funds be provided by the Parliament to permit the engagement of external expertise to work with the Committee to assist in the preparation of the report of the Committee;”.

(2) Omit paragraph (3), substitute:

“(3) calls on the Government to:

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