Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 27 November 2002
Parliamentary Record 9
Debates for 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005
2002-11-27
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
application/pdf
Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/278488
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/421010
DEBATES - Wednesday 27 November 2002 artworks were breathtaking and a great credit to both the staff and students. Casuarina Senior College has a number of staff who contributed to this exhibition and I would like to mention them by name: Justine Staniforth is the acting arts faculty coordinator who heads the creative team which also included Jane Barlow, Karl Brand, Pas Cosentino, Kim Kerr, Serena Kuhl, Jenny Shepherd, Jill Stevens and Russell Wither. Works from 10 students were shortlisted to be included in the exit art exhibition to be held in Parliament House and those students are to be particularly congratulated for all their efforts and skill. I am sure that honourable members will join me in congratulating them. The 10 students who will be exhibited here at Parliament House are Andy Liong, Tara OMullane, Celeste Wilde, Keita Jenke, Vashti Silva, Joanna Roberts, Lauren Clark, Jessica Ong, Ebone Coats and Louise Errington. Above all, I would like to commend all the students throughout the Territory who are finishing their studies this year. Whatever the levels achieved, and not everyone can be an honours student, these young people deserve recognition for reaching the end of their school years and moving onto a new phase in their life. As they enter the world of adulthood they should be proud and congratulated on their achievements and on behalf of all of us I wish them good luck and much success in their life after this. They are of course the future of the Territory. Last Friday, 22 November 2002, I had the pleasure to attend the inaugural meeting of the Northern Territory Arts Grants Board. The establishment of the Arts Grants Board achieved my governments commitment to enhance the accountability and transparency of arts funding to providing an arms length peer assessment process for arts project allocations. In the formation of the board, the government aimed for a mixture of industry and regional diversity, youth and experience, combining skills of both business and practitioners. Out of 24 applications received, of an extraordinary high standard, I had the difficult but exciting task of appointing 12 outstanding Territorians to the board who offer artistic, business and marketing skills across a range of art forms and regions. The calibre of the applications is testimony to the strength of our art sector and I am confident the appointed members will provide the expertise and commitment we need to establish this very important board. We are indeed fortunate in our choice of chair, Gillian Harrison, who comes from Alice Springs but before that was in Darwin for many years. Gillian has a wide experience in arts training and development, employment and related issues across the Territory and is currently employed as the music manager by CAAMA in Alice Springs. The other members are Joanna Barrkman from Batchelor; Peter Callinan from Tennant Creek; Ken Conway, Don Whyte, Neil Weeks, Gary Lee, Bong Ramilo and Chips Mackinolty all from Darwin; from Alice Springs, Craig Mathewson and Heather Shearer; from Katherine, Fleur Pany; and Piijo Ward from Palmerston. The inaugural Arts Grants Board represents some of the extraordinary talent and ability of the arts industry in the Territory. I congratulate them and their chair and wish them well for the rest of their terms ahead. In the final minutes I have left, I would like to take a few moments to salute the passing of two colourful Territorians. I believe our lives would be the poorer for their absences. I speak firstly of our own Queen Mother, Peter Morgan, who passed away on Monday. He was eccentric but he had a value system based on total integrity. He cared deeply about the Territorys heritage and retaining the Darwin he had always known. Bob Collins told me a story about Peter which epitomises his humanitarianism and deep concerns for community; about the time he was involved in fund raising at Holtze Cottage, one of the many restaurants he helped to create. On this occasion, Peter organised a totally outrageous male fashion show to raise money for the Ash Wednesday bushfires. Bob recalls it being an extraordinary event, but he also managed to raise a large sum of money to help the victims of the bushfire which was just so totally Peter. He had a unilateral appeal and boasted of a congratulatory letter from the then Chief Minister, Paul Everingham, recognising Peters role in the success of the first self-government celebrations. As one person said this week, when he died, Darwin was engraved on his heart. A resident since 1984, who began his working life in the Territory as a clerk at the Rum Jungle Mine, he will be very sadly missed. I am also sad to recall the passing of another great person: Stella Kirk, activist, ardent letter writer and protector of heritage who arrived on a yacht in Darwin in 1967. As she walked down Cavenagh Street for the first time and witnessed bodies thrown from the Don Hotel, she knew Darwin was the city for her. She was the first woman to hold a real estate licence in the Territory, and ran her business from a Sidney Williams Hut in my electorate of Fannie Bay. Always sensitive to Darwins history, she was a major campaigner against the proposed destruction of Myilly Point. As Peter Forrest put in his column in the NT News: 3107