Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 14 February 2007
Parliamentary Record 12
Debates for 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; Parliamentary Record; ParliamentNT
2007-02-14
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Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES Wednesday 14 February 2007 3889 Arts stand at the Desert Mob exhibition in Alice Springs. I wear quite proudly the shirt that they gave to me. When I am in the Top End, people often ask where that shirt and those colours came from. I do my fair bit of promotion for the arts centre in your electorate. They do a fantastic job. Listening to you speak reaffirmed what was in the statement about Warlukurlangu and Papunya Tula and how they are family institutions where the grandchildren of those artists are now working. The role that is often overlooked is their contributions to social programs and the benefit of not just the artists and their families, but the whole community. What they put back into the communities is something that a lot of people do not know. When you sit down and talk to them about the role of these centres, people are astounded. I enjoyed your speech, so I thank your for your contribution. The member for Katherine, the opposition spokesperson, said that she did not know much about art, although she is new in the portfolio. She talked about her couple of Paddy Fordham paintings and looked forward to being in the portfolio. I am certainly looking forward to having her as the shadow. I was disappointed because it was clear that she was being contradictory when she said she did not know anything about the sector and then rambled about the federal government. It was clear that she did not read the statement. I will just go back over it. On page 2, I said that in this sector we needed a bipartisan approach and that I hoped that the opposition and Independents of this Assembly felt that. Nowhere in the speech did I put the CLP down. I re-read the speech and thought maybe she was reading something else. There was no criticism whatsoever of the CLP and what they had done as the previous government. I draw the attention of the member for Katherine to page 3, because she then went on with the second lot of rambling about the origins of the Senate inquiry and said that it was not the Northern Territory government. Well, if the member for Katherine had bothered reading the statement properly, I did not say the Northern Territory government was instrumental in getting this inquiry happening. If anything, I said that the Northern Territory government welcomed and supported the inquiry, and acknowledged the two main players. It was clear that she got some information from one of her federal counterparts regarding the role of the federal government in this. This is not something to play politics about because it is very important that we do work with the federal government, as I stressed in the statement, for our visual arts. In the statement, I acknowledged both ANKAAA and Desart, who were the two prime movers, and they were the ones that should have been commended and applauded for the work that they have done. They were the two bodies instrumental in convincing the former federal arts minister, Senator Kemp, not only to endorse the inquiry, but they had a hand in developing its terms of reference. I think the member for Katherine needs to take back her words that I said the Northern Territory government was instrumental. If she had read the statement correctly - but they are very selective about what they think they read and then say, which is absolutely misleading. It is a serious thing to say something contrary to what is actually in the statement. She said young indigenous people should be encouraged through education. If you go into any school, member for Katherine, the arts sector and education work hand-in-hand. There are many remote communities where art is carried through the schools. It is not just visual arts; music has been used as a fantastic medium with some of those remote schools to achieve better school attendance, so they have used music as that medium to get kids back to school. The member for Katherine said that it was the CLP that initiated the Telstra Awards. The Telstra Awards are a national award and the major driver of that is Telstra. With Desert Mob, I did not say - and I reiterate - through this statement, that the CLP did nothing. All I said was that the Martin Labor government did more. When the Chief Minister was Arts minister, there was the Building Stronger Arts Business and, through that strategy, there was the inclusion of a dedicated Indigenous Arts Development Unit that simply was not there under the CLP but did come under the Labor government. I did not criticise the CLP. This is building on what was there. We have added to that. The member for Katherine talked about the IPP Toolkit, that the Northern Territory was fully involved and on the consultative group. She brought up again about the micro-coded DNA to prevent forgeries. The member for Blain has raised this issue with me a couple of times. My office has written to the member for Blain every time he has raised this issue. Views from the sector in relation to this have been passed to the member for Blain. If the member for Katherine, who is now the shadow, wants information on that, we will certainly forward it. Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank members who contributed to this. It is an important industry; it is getting bigger and better. Motion agreed to; statement noted.