Page 3236 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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The ACT government knows, however, that more can be done to provide larger scale venues that would be suitable for hosting multicultural events. Mr Gupta and Ms Orr’s motion today makes a very practical suggestion about addressing that important issue. Despite the great value that the Theo Notaras centre provides to the community as the primary venue for multicultural events, demand for the centre is consistently very high. We acknowledge that its facilities are not large enough to support the growing needs of multicultural organisations and communities who wish to engage with them.
The centre currently provides office space for 24 multicultural organisations, and three meeting rooms and a function centre are available to book. However, the function room can only host a maximum of around 300 people and faces consistently high demand, particularly for daytime and Saturday evening bookings. Functions are held most days, and to date there has only been one Saturday this year when the centre has not been booked.
We are also clearly seeing the community’s demand for large-scale events, with an average of six such events held each month at the Theo Notaras centre. Whilst most of these booking requests can be met, it is sometimes not possible for the centre to be offered at an organisation’s preferred date and time. I have attended many multicultural events which often have over 500 people attending, and I know demand for venues that can cater for large groups will only grow as our city continues to grow.
It is very heartening to see that our community are demonstrating their commitment to diversity, inclusion and celebrating our multicultural community by using the Theo Notaras centre, and we want to encourage that commitment to grow. A venue that can host large multicultural events, as suggested by Mr Gupta and Ms Orr in their motion, would demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive city by providing alternative facilities to meet these additional needs and ensure that the Theo Notaras centre can continue to provide venues suitable for smaller and more intimate cultural gatherings.
To be most effective, a venue like this would need to facilitate upwards of at least 350 people and may need to include things like kitchen facilities, be accessible and well located, and be readily available for the community to book. Mr Gupta and Ms Orr’s suggestion of establishing such a venue at Exhibition Park in Canberra provides a practical idea for consideration. It is a place that has already hosted many multicultural events. I recently attended several community events there, including the Canberra Moon Festival, which has moved out there. I think they have found that location to be quite suitable for their celebration.
As the motion states, Gungahlin is home to a huge number of Canberrans from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and that population is growing. It makes sense to consider EPIC as a venue which is located close to them. But it is important to remember that Canberrans across the city, not just on the north side, would want to take advantage of such a facility as well. EPIC is a venue for all of Canberra that is quite accessible for all Canberrans.
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