Page 3845 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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that $19m casino premium presented to the community. That money has been in the kitty, so to speak, for quite some time. It was received in late 1991, as I recall. It is some time since that occurred; and, to date, we have had spent well under $5m of that $21m available for spending on those major projects. It is probably less than $5m.
In the first financial year, 1993-94, only $1.69m of that $21.3m was spent. That is an appalling figure. In the present financial year we expect to spend - this money has been there for several years, bear in mind, earning interest, which has not been put back into the arts in Canberra - a grand total of $4.3m. After approximately four years of having this money at its disposal, the ACT Government will have spent a total of only $6m out of the $21.3m. That is unacceptable. It indicates a government which either cannot make decisions about these matters or has decided that it gets more value for money, more bang for the buck, by prolonging the process of allocating that money. For some areas of the community there is considerable distress in the Government's slow decision making in allocating that money. There are many community groups which have made applications for funds from the cultural and regional facilities allocation - that is, the $2.75m put aside for regional facilities - and which have been deeply disappointed because of the extensive delays that have been caused by this Government being slow in making decisions about that matter.
Bear in mind that we have had a series of reports and examinations of this question over a period of several years. Mr Wood, during a period in opposition, chaired the Assembly's Select Committee on Cultural Facilities, which produced a report at about the time that he became Minister. Then there was the report of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee of the Assembly, which recommended that money be spent on a keeping place; on the upgrade of the Canberra Theatre Centre; on the upgrade of the centre at Exhibition Park; and on the Childers Street Theatre. All those recommendations were made over two years ago, and still nothing of significance, with the single exception, primarily, of the Exhibition Park upgrade, has actually happened.
Then we had the Sharing the Vision document last year. It was significant and important; but, again, the key decisions in the area of the arts were left unmade. That is a matter of great regret to all those in this community who want to see the arts maintain the pivotal position which we believe that they should have in enlightening, enriching and entertaining society.
I am also particularly concerned at and particularly distressed by this Government's quite disgraceful performance in its support of the Federal Government's backdown on that important cultural facility, the National Museum of Australia. Instead of the Government sticking to its guns and maintaining, as Ms Follett repeatedly and emphatically said as late as earlier this year, that the National Museum of Australia belonged on Yarramundi Reach, we saw her cave in to pressure from her Federal colleagues and agree, "Yes; okay; we will put up with an adulterated, scaled down, watered down, Museum of Australia, retitled the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia, on Acton Peninsula". The site had been declared unavailable for those sorts of things; the site was worth $45m; the site, the Chief Minister said, would disappear from the ACT's control only over her dead body, or words to that effect.
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