Page 3774 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 September 2018
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Canberra is very well served by a wide range of cultural organisations. In music we are especially well endowed. We have the Canberra Youth Orchestra, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the National Capital Orchestra and the Maruki Community Orchestra, not to mention the numerous choirs that call Canberra home and the depth of talent in our schools, many of which have their own jazz bands, brass bands, ensembles and string and chamber orchestras. Anyone who has had the opportunity to attend a concert at any number of our schools, both government and non-government, will agree that the standard of the music on offer is exceptionally high. In July this year, yet another ensemble was formed: the Canberra Sinfonia.
Given the population of Canberra, five orchestras or ensembles—not including the Duntroon Military College band and the numerous school groups—would seem a very rich supply of music delivery. That is not by accident, and anyone involved in the music scene in Canberra would be well aware of the drivers of that proliferation of talent. When you learn that the 25-year-old conductor of two of those orchestras is a graduate of the H course, as are many of their members, you start to see the key drivers that have led to this musically rich resource and just how influential this music for colleges program has been over its 35 years in existence.
That is soon to stop. The ACT government, with no consultation and no plausible explanation, has decided this activity must stop. The ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies approved H course in classical music and jazz music will no longer be funded, with effect for new students in year 11 from 2019. The news has been met with disbelief, anger, sadness and great bewilderment as to why a program that has been so successful, that has delivered so many talented musicians, administrators and teachers, is having its funding cut.
And why? The publicity blurb suggests that it is to allow artsACT to give new funding to a wider range of music courses, not just those at college level. That seems a little thin, given that we are not talking about millions of dollars and given that the course has had demonstrable success factors—success factors going back over 35 years. All that lost for the sake of $275,000 a year? It simply does not make sense.
I would hope that in defending this decision the word “equity” does not rear its ugly head. Whilst it is good that music education is delivered to a broad cross-section of the ACT community, it makes no sense to do that at the expense of a highly successful, well-credentialed program such as this H course which gives our young musicians the start they need to pursue a career in music, a career that, as one young musician told me, they would not even have thought about pursuing had it not been for this H course.
I acknowledge some Canberrans in the gallery today who are concerned about what is going on. Surely $275,000 a year to support our young people to pursue a career in music is not beyond the budget of the ACT? Given that we have an education budget of close to $2 billion a year, I cannot believe that $275,000 a year is unaffordable. The minister for education is able, Pontius Pilate like, to wash her hands of this cut and say, “It is not my fault. It is an artsACT decision.” As deputy leader and potential future Chief Minister, I presume Ms Berry is an active member of cabinet and would
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