Page 4174 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 18 November 2015

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To sum up, I hope—I really do hope—that the minister brings to her work in this portfolio space more empathy and more humility than she does when she comes into a debate on this topic in the Assembly. The disability space, particularly when you are dealing with young children with autism, requires patience, it requires encouragement and it requires a great, great deal of humility to get the best out of them. On today’s showing, she fails to show that she is capable of that in this place. I only hope that her work as a minister is better than the performance we see from her in this chamber.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Arts—policy framework

MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.58): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the importance of providing equal coverage and support to a broad range of art forms in our city;

(b) the value of the arts as the underlying element to our city’s economic prosperity and social well-being;

(c) the Minister’s inability and failure to list the policy goals and outcomes achieved as a consequence of her 2012 Arts Policy Framework; and

(d) the Minister’s second Arts Policy Framework published in June 2015, which only included four principles and referred to existing artsACT and Cultural Facilities Corporation initiatives; and

(2) calls on the Minister to:

(a) develop a consultation schedule with all arts communities in the ACT;

(b) develop a consolidated list of actionable initiatives in support of her 2015 Arts Policy Framework with accompanying budgets, performance targets and timeframes; and

Mr Assistant Speaker, I am sure you will listen with interest; your love of the arts is well known. From those on your side, you are probably the person I see most at arts functions around the ACT, and you are to be congratulated on that. There is a fundamental question to ask about why we fund the arts and what do the arts return, therefore, to the community from that funding. From all the literature it is quite clear that the arts are a genuine driver of economies. Economies that accept that, harness that and use that to direct their economy and their funding do very well. That is why I say in part (1)(b) of my motion:

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