Page 4186 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 18 November 2015
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MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please continue.
MR SMYTH: Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the arts motion. I am pleased Mr Rattenbury is here; I thank him for his contribution because he said, “What’s the value of the list?” The value of the list is that this minister never delivers, Mr Rattenbury. If you go back to the 2012 arts framework, and if you had listened to what I said at the start, when I asked them what was the outcome of the framework, all that the officials and the minister were able to say was they had modified the funding guidelines. The 2012 arts framework says:
The Framework provides a structure within which arts policy and the goals and outcomes associated with policy will be developed …
It never happened, Mr Rattenbury. I asked for it, and they were not able to table it. I will read it again:
The Framework provides a structure within which arts policy and the goals and outcomes associated with policy will be developed …
It did not happen, Madam Deputy Speaker. I acknowledge your presence; I see you and your husband at many arts functions. I know you are a keen lover of the arts, as are many in this place. For Mr Rattenbury’s benefit I will read it again:
… 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.
It never happened, Mr Rattenbury. They could not table one, except to say, “We’ve modified the funding guidelines.” That is all they did—three years to develop a policy framework and all they did was to modify the funding guidelines.
I have great respect, minister, for the people who work in the arts fraternity, because they are the real drivers in the engine room of the current economy, and could be a much greater driver in the future economy. You raised what the Childers Group said in their budget submission, Mr Rattenbury. The estimates committee, when they raised that, when they spoke before us—I have not had time to find it—had a recommendation that said the government should do something about this, just as governments had helped the community sector go to Fair Work Australia. The response from the government was, “Well, that’s up to them.” I am paraphrasing it, but that is the basic gist of it. A lot of people were quite disappointed that the party and government that prides itself on supporting the worker took such an offhand approach to what was happening.
So we know what happened in 2013—absolutely nothing. I thank Ms Burch for her speech on the consultation process. It is there on page 9; a consultation report was developed. You would think you would turn the page and find out what has happened since, and what is going to happen. But it just says how it all fits together, and there is a chart that basically mirrors artsACT’s strategic plan. If we have abrogated the vision to the strategic plan of artsACT then so be it. But there is no implementation. As you read correctly, Mr Rattenbury, on page 29 it goes on to say:
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