Page 759 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 March 2019
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Developing young writers and performing and visual artists
Discussion of matter of public importance
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Orr): Madam Speaker has received letters from Miss C Burch, Ms Cheyne, Ms Cody, Mr Coe, Mrs Dunne, Ms Le Couteur, Ms Lee, Ms Orr, Mr Parton, Mr Pettersson and Mr Wall proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with standing order 79, Madam Speaker has determined that the matter proposed by Mrs Dunne be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The importance of developing Canberra’s young writers and performing and visual artists.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.55): It is apposite that the Minister for the Arts and Cultural Events would this morning table the government’s response to a petition calling on this Labor-Greens coalition government to reinstate funding for the H course. I will not dwell on the issue too much now because my colleague Ms Lee will also speak on this subject.
However, let me observe three things about the petition. Firstly, the petition and the minister’s response this morning demonstrate this Labor-Greens coalition government’s failure to support a program that has developed some of the most talented musicians that Canberra has seen. Secondly, the minister’s response demonstrated this government’s failure to understand that the H course was, if I can use the pun, instrumental in pointing some of Canberra’s most talented young musicians in the direction of full-time professional careers in music that in some cases has taken them around the world. And, thirdly, it showed up the failure of this minister and this government to understand what it means for young musicians to pursue full-time professional careers in music. It showed a failure to appreciate the multi-pronged benefits that these careers bring not only to the musicians themselves but to Canberra itself.
These young musicians become ambassadors for Canberra as they travel the world, making a name for themselves and, along the way, making a name for Canberra. They will talk about how they were educated. They will talk about Canberra’s qualities as a tourist destination. They will talk about Canberra as a great place to live and grow up and nurture your career. Unfortunately these benefits will be lost to those audiences in the future because of this Labor-Greens coalition government’s short-sightedness.
It beggars belief that this Labor-Greens coalition did not observe and learn from the long-term, ongoing effects of the decimation of the ANU School of Music in 2012. Where once the ANU School of Music was a place of learning to which music students Australia wide aspired to attend, it became a place for students to avoid. And it remains a place that struggles to find its direction. That this government would regard the H course as misdirected funding for the elite and try to confuse things by calling it something else, demonstrated by the minister’s waffly response to the petition, is testament to its lack of understanding and misdirection in policy making.
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