Page 2277 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012

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(b) particular connection between the ANU School of Music and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra;

(d) announcement of the Vice-Chancellor of the ANU to make significant cuts to the funding of the School of Music; and

(e) consequent impacts this will have on staffing, course options, education quality and the community generally;

(2) expresses its support for the:

(a) ANU School of Music;

(b) School’s reputation established under the existing staffing and course structure; and

(c) contribution the School makes to the Canberra community, as well as the national and international music industries; and

(3) calls on the Speaker to write to the Vice-Chancellor of the ANU to advise him of the Assembly’s resolution.

It was strangely ironic that only last Wednesday during the adjournment debate I delivered a speech on the virtues of jazz, given that Monday of that week was International Jazz Day. In my speech I spoke about the Australian National University School of Music, its jazz department teachers and just a few of the graduates who have gone on to make international careers as jazz musicians. The very next morning the vice-chancellor of the ANU announced significant funding cuts to the School of Music, including the spilling of jobs at the school. Faculty members are able to reapply, but only a few will be re-engaged. In addition there will be significant changes to the course structure, taking the emphasis away from performance-based tuition, including one-on-one teaching, and putting it more towards vocational training. So, in effect, there will be less training in music and more training on how to get a job.

In short, Mr Speaker, the ANU is set to gut an important education program. It is set to gut an education program that enjoys a high international reputation for its excellence in course structures, the quality of its teaching and the output of qualified musicians. To some extent, it is fair enough for the ANU to examine and critically review its operations and the financial viability and effectiveness of its programs. This is undisputed. Any organisation worth its salt would do that. But in doing so, organisations like the ANU, given their public funding, must consider the broader implications of decisions like this.

So far, any observer could be forgiven for thinking that the vice-chancellor has targeted the School of Music as a battle that he sees that he can win in a war that he has already lost. It was only a few days earlier when he retreated from his first

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