Page 2984 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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I must comment briefly on the Kingston arts precinct. The minister opened his comments by saying what a great idea it was and how fantastic it was. But we know that this has been mishandled from the very beginning. There has been uncertainty and misinformation. Arts organisations slated to move to the precinct have been expected to undertake planning in a vacuum. They still do not know how their needs and expectations will be met, and this goes right down to whether hardworking volunteers will have a place to park their cars. The government has hedged the question of rents. The design concepts are unknown.
And now it will all start again, because the Suburban Land Agency has taken over responsibility for its development. We are already years beyond the time line, and still there is no design and there has not been a sod turned. (Second speaking period taken.) I have to reflect on this because when I was the shadow minister for the arts, in 2011 and 2012, there was a huge amount of discussion about the Kingston arts precinct and the Territory Plan variation—Ms Le Couteur is nodding because she was there as well—that set up the process for the Kingston arts precinct.
That was in 2011-12. I think the debate was in 2012. Part of the debate was whether we should change the fabric of the Fitters Workshop, which thankfully we did not, and I thank the Greens for their support in that very important endeavour. That was 2012. We are now at 2019. It is five years and we are just beginning. We have just signed a contract with the preferred tenderer, and we do not have a design. We have a concept. It is like everything else that this government does in the infrastructure space: it takes so long.
Let us talk about SPIRE. Let us talk about the health infrastructure which they were going to build after the 2012 election. They put it on hold. Then they promised to build SPIRE at the election in 2016. They had no idea what they were promising. The construction time for that has blown out and blown out. At the same time they promised a new stage of the women’s and children’s hospital, to be delivered in 2019.
The Kingston arts precinct has been on the boiler since 2012. In 2016 we had a preferred tenderer. It took them three years to sign an agreement with that preferred tenderer. This is the whole state of everything about this government: its languid incapacity to build things on time.
The Labor-Greens government have a static approach to the arts. The arts community cannot trust them to have any faith in their ability to grow the community, because they are just steady staters. Under the Labor-Greens government, there is no future for the arts. Despite the government’s inaction on the arts, despite its defunding of valued arts programs, and despite its static approach and attitude to arts development in town, the arts, of their own volition and on their own initiative, continue to flourish, almost in spite of this government.
I want to finish on a very positive note that goes to the amazing talent in this city and what it offers to its citizens and to the wider world. This will come as a surprise to the Labor-Greens government. Sadly, I was away when the Australian World Orchestra made its concert debut in Canberra just a few weeks ago. I note that the minister
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