Page 2899 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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The real evidence that came forward in this was the work by the acoustic engineers, and the acoustic engineers told Minister Burch what she did not want to hear and told the rest of the community what they already knew—that is, this is a space with unique acoustic values. As I said the other day, one of the acoustic engineers said it is such a great place to create music that that is where real music creators want to be—at the edge. It is not soft and easy and all of those sorts of things; it is edgy, and it creates, because of that, really great music.
Minister Burch has spent a whole lot of time trying to decry the music community. Again, she wants to stop her ears. Like with Bimberi when she stopped her ears and said, “La, la, la, la, la, I don’t want to hear,” she has done the same thing with this. She sort of said, “Oh, you know, it’s really unsuitable except for a very narrow range of musical styles.”
Let us just look at the sorts of people and the sorts of performances that we have had. ABC FM broadcast nationally in May seven concerts that were performed at the Fitters Workshop by two different orchestras, another orchestra with a violin soloist, a vocal ensemble, an array of percussion instruments, two pianos with two singers, jazz trumpet, saxophone, and a jazz singer, bowed piano, string quartets, solo cello and solo guitar. For Minister Burch to say that this is a place where only narrow sorts of music can be played is to disrespect the music fraternity and the acoustic fraternity who have told her otherwise.
Minister Burch has spent a lot of time trying to play down the great acoustic of this place. As an admirer of music but someone who does not play and who cannot carry a tune in a bucket I can only appreciate that from a distance, but the practitioners know what it means and what it is like, and Minister Burch shows no interest.
What we are doing here today is requiring the government to act in the best interests of the community. Minister Burch has refused to take the clear advice of the committee, which is supported by the clear advice of two independent sets of acoustic engineers who told the committee just what a special space this is. They added that no-one yet can explain how it got there, but over years of work and slight modifications, we have created this gem.
The work that will be done to modify the Fitters Workshop to accommodate Megalo will irrevocably change that space because they are going to knock out a wall and they are going to put a pod inside with a mezzanine floor. That will irrevocably change the Fitters Workshop. That is part of the minister’s lie. She keeps saying it is not forever because the pod is removable, but the hole they are going to make in the wall will be there forever. If you put those two things together, Minister Burch and the Labor Party will change the Fitters Workshop forever and alienate it from most of the community for a wide range of community uses.
We saw the advice from artsACT in the FOI request where it put to the government that there were a range of things that could be done there, such as dance, exhibitions—we know the glassworks would like to use the space for exhibitions—and music through the International Music Festival. Other people would come and use
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