Page 2905 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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MS BURCH: Mrs Dunne describes an elephant in the room. Megalo were there. That is why they have created this new logo, because they heard firsthand Mrs Dunne describe them as an elephant in the room to be roughed up and sent on their way. It really is quite clear that we can do something very well. We believe that having a nationally and internationally regarded anchor tenant in the Fitters Workshop is consistent with our views. Goodness me, what if every time we make a decision the arts communities have their funding and their security taken away on a whim and a fancy because Mrs Dunne considers Megalo an elephant in the room?
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to use standing order 47, because the words used by Minister Burch are wrong and represent a misunderstanding of what was said. Standing order 47 allows me to clarify that before the debate proceeds.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mrs Dunne. I am just checking my standing orders. I think I can give you the leave. That is fine.
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, Minister Burch, on radio the other day, and today here twice, has said that I called Megalo the elephant in the room. I understand that somewhere along the line Megalo has been called the elephant in the room, but it was not by me. What I said at the Childers Group meeting was: “The arts are very good at recognising elephants in the room, picking them up, giving them a good shake, making them trumpet loudly and then herding them out of the room with solutions that sometimes can be confronting.” And then I said: “So let me in a short time pick two elephants and give them a good shake and offer some talking points.”
At no point have I said that anyone should be herded out of the room or that Megalo is the elephant in the room. “First,” I said—the second one was actually public art, but the first one I talked about was the Fitters Workshop—“is the Fitters Workshop, the Kingston arts precinct and specifically the future and the destiny of the Megalo arts studio and gallery. What a big, noisy, smelly elephant all that has been for the past several months.”
It shows that some people would like to be a little selective in their quotations, and we need to get to the whole lot. The truth is that I said that there were a number of elephants in the room, and that the arts community was good at giving them a good shake, allowing them to trumpet loudly and herding them out with a solution. One of the elephants in the room was the future of the Fitters Workshop, the Kingston arts precinct and Megalo. So get it right.
Ms Burch interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Thank you. Order! We will now proceed. Ms Burch, thank you. Ms Le Couteur has the floor.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (6.04): Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is a—
Ms Burch interjecting—
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