Page 4117 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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I am pleased to confirm that the planning stage of the review is underway. I propose that the review will involve a survey of practising artists and organisations and interested members of the public. We as a government are ready to continue the conversation with the arts sector about the next steps in this policy journey, and I look forward to updating the Assembly. (Time expired.)
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.35): I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter again today. I note that we last had a motion from Mr Smyth on the arts on 22 October. We are back for a further discussion, although I think there is less hyperbole in today’s motion than there was on the 22nd. But today’s motion calls on the minister to list all policy goals and outcomes achieved as a result of the arts policy framework, and we have just heard quite a comprehensive response from the Minister for the Arts, who has detailed a significant accounting of the outcomes achieved under the framework.
The minister also outlined the four policy goals of the framework, which are, in brief: facilitating community participation, supporting artistic excellence, strengthening capacity, and fostering innovation. These goals are of course easily available on the artsACT website, but they have now been read into Hansard for good measure.
The minister has circulated some amendments to Mr Smyth’s motion which I will be supporting, because I think the minister’s speech itself is a good summary of the state of play in the arts scene here in the territory.
I know there was quite a robust debate at estimates, but I think what we have seen in the minister’s amendments is a pathway forward. I will keep my remarks brief, as I do need to briefly step out of the chamber. But I just want to briefly indicate that I will be supporting the minister’s amendments today.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.37): What a betrayal of the arts community that statement from Mr Rattenbury was. I understand he has got to go away and do an interview, and that is fine. Yet again he squibs it. There was a chance today to hold the government to account, to hold his colleagues to account. We see Mr Rattenbury slipping closer and closer to the government as a minister ensconced in the cabinet rather than the independent, free-thinking crossbencher that he portrays himself as. That is the problem for the Greens. It is the dilemma of being in cabinet. You cannot hold yourself accountable because sometimes it means making a hard decision to hold a colleague to account. That is what should have happened today.
The choice today is that Ms Burch wants to give us an update on a review and the Liberals want to know what are the policies, the goals and the outcomes as accountability measures for a substantial expenditure of taxpayers’ money. Being in cabinet counts for more than holding the Labor Party to account. It is funny; the shrill level of the response from the minister clearly shows how close to the bone this got with her. I suspect that if her office or her officials had spent a fraction of the time on arts policy that they spent on reading my very valuable reflections on the value of the arts then what a policy we would have here today. We would not be having this debate.
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