Page 4107 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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I will just read the last outcome again for the benefit of the minister: “monitoring and evaluation of the effects of policy action and feedback to inform future policy development”. That is not what we are getting from this Minister for the Arts, who simply treats the arts as an opportunity to launch a document, to give away some money or to be at an opening but has not really grasped the nettle on the issue of how important the arts are to the future of this city, as an expression of this city, and to the economy of this city.
For members who do not know, Joy Burch MLA, Minister for the Arts, in July 2012 released the arts policy framework for the ACT. On page 7 of that framework, it says:
The Framework provides a structure within which arts policy and the goals and outcomes associated with policy will be developed, and will guide the implementation and review of existing policies and programs.
You can imagine that when the arts portfolio came up in annual report hearings, two years and four months after the release of the policy by the minister, one would have thought it was reasonable to go in and ask what were the policies that had been developed, what were the outcomes and what were the goals. The answers were stunning, absolutely stunning. There are none. There is no new policy. Two years and four months after release by the minister, there were no goals developed and there are no outcomes associated with the policy. How do we know that? Because the minister and the officials told us so.
Let me quote. I said:
In the policy framework, it says on page 7:
The Framework provides a structure within which arts policy and the goals and outcomes associated with policy will be developed …
In the two years and four months since the minister launched the framework, what policy goals and outcomes associated with the policy have been developed? And could you table copies of them, please?
The official said:
No, we cannot table a formal development of a policy.
It is pretty stark, Madam Deputy Speaker. Two years and four months into this process, on perhaps one of the most valuable drivers of the modern economy, there is not a single measurable outcome. No new policy, no goals set and no outcomes.
It goes on:
MR SMYTH: So in two years and four months there have been no policies developed as a consequence of the framework?
Ms Burch: That is not what Mr Whitney said.
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