Page 2900 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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it once it is open and available. Minister Burch says no-one wants to use it. Well, that is because, to use it, you have to go into the basement behind the door marked “beware the very dangerous dog”, and there you have to fill out a form in triplicate in blood before you can get in. That is why no-one uses it now, except of course if you are a favoured friend, like the unions, who get it for free and Megalo who get it for free. Pro Musica do not get it for free and they have to work very hard to get it.
Mr Latham, the Director of the Canberra International Music Festival, explained to the committee how hard it was and how much time he had to spend to get permission for the first concert in the Fitters Workshop. And what a great discovery we made because Chris Latham put in the effort. All that effort over all those years is going to come to nothing if Minister Burch and Labor get their way and alienate this heritage gem from the wider community.
The wider community need to have its place in this. It is interesting that Minister Burch acknowledges the work done in the Conroy report but then goes against the general thrust of the report. The Conroy report said at one stage—this is certainly the feedback I have got from Ms Conroy when she spoke to me about her report:
There is concern that a cultural precinct of visual arts organisations with a focus on making and learning with some exhibition would not sufficiently activate (animate) the precinct. It was seen as vital that complementary arts and cultural activity be included. There were mixed views about locating Megalo in the Fitters’ Workshop. The building‘s central location in the precinct, also its open and flexible space mean it is seen as being well-suited to being a multi-dimensional facility for all future tenants and other arts and performative practice.
That is what the Conroy report said about the Fitters Workshop. We know what the committee of inquiry said about the Fitters Workshop. We know what the acoustic engineers said about the Fitters Workshop. What is left is the blind, blinkered “I don’t want to hear, la, la, la” Joy Burch approach, whose only own response is, “What would Jon Stanhope do?” We know what Jon Stanhope would do. He would disrespect the music community in the way he did with his outrageous comments calling them “a pack of rabid dogs metaphorically cocking their legs on buildings around town to mark them out for their use”. How disrespectful.
That disrespect is perpetuated by the lack of regard Minister Burch has had for this committee inquiry, for the work that was done by the committee of inquiry and for the work that was done by those people who came before the committee, the vast majority of whom put forward an argument as to why this should remain a multipurpose space.
It is vitally important that the Fitters Workshop remain a multipurpose space. That is why my colleagues and I have decided today to bring forward this important motion to direct the government to implement the recommendations of the standing committee report. The standing committee report says to the government: “Look after this asset. This is a community asset. You don’t own it. It belongs to the community. It is held in trust. You are the stewards of this place. Do not wreck it.”
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