Page 1224 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 August 1989
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that committee and helping in the preparation of that report.
All the speakers who have spoken so far have covered virtually every facet of cultural life in the ACT and have brought a lot of interesting points forward. I do not intend to expand upon them. I would just like to note that it is pleasing to hear the Chief Minister's support for this motion, considering especially in item 5 the words "additional staff, facilities and resources be provided to service this committee". I look forward to just that happening - to additional staff being provided. So, on that note, I support it.
MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (11.38): I also rise to support this motion. After all, it is said that all the world is a stage and we are mere players. What better entertainment can Canberrans have than coming here? I think the best entertainment in town is here. I do not know why anybody would want to go anywhere else.
Mr Kaine: Your audience at the moment consists entirely of the opposition.
MRS GRASSBY: That is all I need, Mr Kaine. That is all I need. I would ask this committee, in supporting it - and I join our Chief Minister in this - not only to look at a theatre for adults. I am wondering whether people read the paper today and saw one of the letters from the children which said, "It is all right if you are 18; there are lots of bands you can go and listen to and things on holidays. But what do we do? Watch television and stay home, and there is nothing to do".
I would hope that this committee would look at ways and means of providing theatre and entertainment for children on holidays, because unfortunately we now live in a world where children find it very hard to entertain themselves. I am sure the opposition members, when they were growing up, learned to entertain themselves all very well. They have learned to entertain themselves in this house very well, so I am sure they had good training. Children today need to be entertained. Therefore, I would like to think that this committee would look at that.
I would also like to think that this committee would look at not only theatre and the arts in English. There are a lot of people in this city whose first language is not English and there are a lot of very talented people amongst the original people who owned this land. We know this from plays like The Cake Man and The Fringe Dwellers, which we saw on television the other night. I would like to see the arts in this field being tapped and these people being given a chance to show the ability they have. I find that there is very little in this city for people whose first language is not English and for the original people of this country that they find entertaining. I would like to think that the committee would look into that field as well.
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