Page 2904 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
you for seeing fit to move Megalo into the old Fitters Workshop. Printmakers present and to come will use these premises day in, day out, year in, year out.” Then there is another: “Hello, I am working from London, so this news has, indeed, gone far and wide. Very exciting and many of the print groups work out of heritage buildings and they fully support the great decision to stand by Megalo in a move to printers workshop.”
I could read more. It is very clear that there are two camps in this debate; there is no doubt about it. There are some that are supportive of Megalo moving into the Fitters Workshop. There are others that are supportive of a mixed use space. This government has not been hiding its decision in any way, shape or form. We have been up-front from the get-go about our plans to relocate Megalo into the Fitters Workshop. Indeed, in the budget reply in May last year Ms Le Couteur went on to say:
The retrofitting of the Fitters Workshop is a welcome step for the visual arts and Megalo …
It seems that within a short time Ms Le Couteur has changed her mind. Just this morning Helen Musa said on 2CC: “I was talking to some of the Megalo people at their gallery launch last night and, of course, they are over the moon. Now there has been a lot of talk. There has been months and months and months of consultation. There has been a lot of talk of keeping it as a multi-purpose space, but, Mark, the reality is that, these days, multi-purpose spaces don’t work very well. They end up not being very useful to anyone. So a decision did have to be made. My view is that a sensible decision has been made. I just hope that, as minister, Joy Burch said that they can just get on with it and they can actually do it.”
At 6 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MS BURCH: That was just one comment this morning from Helen Musa, a well-regarded arts critic who certainly has her finger on the pulse about what is needed. Let me go back to that: “These days multi-use spaces don’t work very well. They end up not being very useful to anybody. So a decision did have to be made. In my view, a sensible decision has been made.”
I would just like to finish by saying that Mrs Dunne comes in here with an absolutely biased opinion. She made that very clear when she described Megalo in public—and it has been brought to me: I was not there; I was actually travelling interstate—
Mrs Dunne: You certainly weren’t; otherwise you’d know it was untrue.
MS BURCH: All those other people have got it wrong? Is that what you are saying—that those that have come to me are lying?
MR SPEAKER: Members, through the chair, thank you.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video