Page 1894 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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statements have adversely affected me in reputation and dealings in the arts and business community by inferring something “shadowy” has occurred when no such thing has happened at all.
I object to the suggestion that I should not have even been considered to be appointed or that I have poor training or judgement. To justify this I simply say that at the time of my appointment I had directed six Fringe Festivals in Canberra; produced, directed, and acted in hundreds of other festival and theatrical related productions; held senior positions with the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Australian Theatre Institute, & ArtsLink; edited the Australian Performing Arts Directory and been an arts journalist for well over a decade including six years as the arts editor of a prominent local Canberra publication. My first professional production was in 1988. I stand by my record.
• Mr Hanson (MLA) on my appointment: ”....Mr Gardner was being given $20,000 by the minister to run the festival”. This and other similar statements imply I was actually paid this amount personally to run the event - I was not. It was the cash budget for the event that I administered. I in fact was not paid a salary, ran the event for free and as producer took a loss in the many thousands. This money went to ACT artists. This continual reference adversely affects my dealings with others who may think I have been untrue regards my budgetary arrangements - I have not. Any level headed person could see that this small amount of money to produce a major four-day event in Civic (plus logistic support) leaves little for the event producer and why (at no cost to the ACT taxpayer I may add) the event was in the negative.
• Members referred to some problems I have had in my personal life which had zero to do with my appointment or my job running Fringe 2014.
Mr Smyth (MLA): “She settled for a festival director towards the end of last year who faced arrest for missing his court date not once but twice”.
This was a cheap attack that had issues relating to my health that have not been revealed to the public and nor should they be unless I reference them and was also a more complex legal situation that was not to be dismissed in such a quick statement. These other statements should not have been made and had members been aware of the circumstances surrounding the minor offence and my health I am convinced they would not have been.
Mr Smyth (MLA): ”...(he) lost his job at a radio station for distastefully commenting that the former Prime Minister was “up skirted” by a “penis cam” in a cabinet meeting.
This statement is incorrect and, again, has nothing to do with my appointment as Fringe Director. I did not leave my job in radio because of this issue. This incident in fact occurred a fair while before I resigned my job in local radio. Even simply by evidence of time-line this statement is factually incorrect and both statements have clearly invaded my privacy having little to do with the debate at hand.
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