Page 5476 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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(g) not all Canberra districts have local festivals;
(h) demand for the ACT Festival Fund is in the order of three times the funds available;
(i) ACT Festival Funding is allocated annually;
(j) the methodology for determining the order of merit of applications is unclear from public documentation; and
(k) approximately two-thirds of applications received were deemed to be non-compliant and received no further consideration; and
(2) calls upon the ACT Government to:
(a) provide additional funding for the ACT Festival Fund in recognition of the demand for it;
(b) provide clear public information about the methodology for ranking applications;
(c) provide a simplified process for festival fund applications designed to result in lower rates of non-compliant applications;
(d) facilitate group insurance for festival organisers as insurance is often a substantial part of the costs; and
(e) actively engage with the WCCC and other unsuccessful applicants and advise of any additional information required to support their funding requests for the second round of funding.”.
I will try to be very brief because I understand we are adjourning in five minutes and I am not sure whether it is going to be possible to get this all finished in the time. But I am in the fortunate or unfortunate position of agreeing to a large extent with both of the previous speakers. Things that Mr Hanson has said about Weston Creek and its need for a community festival and that Featherstone Gardens would be an absolutely lovely place to have one, I have to 100 per cent agree with. I have said to the Weston Creek Community Council that I think that it would be great if they could have a community festival. In the interests of time, could we take it as read that I would say and agree with those things that Mr Hanson said.
I also have to agree with Mr Barr that I think that it is totally inappropriate for the Assembly to single out a particular festival, a particular funding application, and say: “This is our No 1. This is what should be done.” I think that there is a reason that we have independent bodies to determine these things. We often talk a lot in this place about accountability and transparency and proper processes and I think that having the Assembly allocating funding for a festival does not qualify as that. It is appropriate that this should be independent.
I agree with most of what Mr Barr said. Certainly in terms of his amendment, as he said, it is factual. The only thing in it that I would probably point out particularly is
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