Page 4985 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
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Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (3.44): Ms Le Couteur has raised a very interesting matter today. As a result of the fact that it is the parliamentary triangle and we do not specifically provide municipal services to that area, it is an area that perhaps we do overlook in some of our conversations and debates in this place.
It is a unique opportunity for us to take the time to reflect on some of the peculiar or particular issues within the triangle and the relationship of the triangle to the rest of the territory, whilst acknowledging that issues there are within the remit of a different government, by and large. Of course, some of the services are provided by the ACT government.
It is important that we take the time to reflect on the significance of activities within the parliamentary triangle to the ACT and the people of the ACT. There is perhaps no starker example of that than the importance to the ACT of the commonwealth’s investments in the cultural institutions within the parliamentary triangle. One of the great endowments that the city enjoys is the endowment of those very significant institutions, including, of course, the national parliament, but in the context of cultural institutions I refer to the National Gallery, the recently opened Portrait Gallery, the National Library, the National Archives and the National Museum, and the significance of those institutions for cultural tourism and, through cultural tourism, the significance of those institutions to our economy.
In that context it is relevant to reflect on just how important the blockbuster exhibitions at the National Gallery are. We will be able to enjoy another one in the next few months—the fantastic Musee d’Orsay exhibition that will open here in December. It will be a significant exhibition featuring the works of a whole range of very significant artists—Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Monet and a range of others that will be featured in that outstanding exhibition. It is an exhibition that the ACT government are very pleased to have been able to play some small part in attracting to the territory through our investment of half a million dollars.
The museum anticipates that that exhibition, which will run from December through to April, will attract 250,000 people, with 75 per cent of those, the National Gallery believes, coming from interstate. The relevant estimate is that the impact on the ACT economy will be in the order of $50 million as a result of the National Gallery hosting that exhibition. Of course, each of the cultural institutions plays a significant part in attracting people, most particularly Australians, to Canberra for their holidays and as tourists.
It is interesting that Mr Coe raised the issue of roads within the parliamentary triangle. There has been focus on some of the roads. The focus at the moment is certainly on the Kings Avenue roundabout, which is a major piece of construction—$27 million for an overpass for a more grade-separated or integrated approach, and the connection between that major intersection in the triangle and the roads to the airport.
The issue that has been raised, at one level, is relevant to the issue of major focus which Ms Le Couteur went to, namely, the construction of a major commonwealth office block in Constitution Avenue—the new ASIO headquarters. I think we are all
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