11 May 2016
EO&E.
VANESSA GOODWIN:
I am delighted to be here this morning at the Tasmanian museum and art gallery, with my federal liberal colleague, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, who is the Minister for Communications and the Arts, and also the Manager of Government Business in the Senate.
I also have Marcus Allan, our Federal Liberal Candidate for Denison, and Amanda-Sue Markham, our Federal Liberal Candidate for Franklin. And Janet Carding, the Director of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
This is a very exciting day for us all as we are here to announce that the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is to receive $427,000 funding for a touring exhibition for Aboriginal shell necklaces. This exhibition will tour around Australia, starting here in Hobart and finishing in Launceston. It will feature both historical Aboriginal necklaces and also contemporary necklaces as well. So we are absolutely delighted to be receiving this funding and to have this opportunity to showcase Tasmanian Aboriginal necklaces to Australia, and I’d just like to acknowledge the work of the curator of the exhibition, and the applicant, Zoe Rimmer, who is going to be very busy for the next few months getting this exhibition ready for touring, and also congratulations to the TMAG director, Janet Carding, and thank our Federal colleague very much for this wonderful opportunity for Tasmania.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well thanks so much, Vanessa, and thanks to Janet, the director here at TMAG, for having us. It’s great to be with the candidate for Denison, Marcus Allan, and also Amanda-Sue Markham, who is our candidate for the seat of Franklin. This is an exciting announcement of $427,000 to enable the shell necklace exhibition to tour Australia, to be at ten venues around the nation. This is funded under the Visions of Australia Program, which is a great way to ensure that some of Australia’s important works can be seen throughout the nation and importantly, in the regions.
It’s also important to be here today with our candidates in Denison and Franklin to talk about our plan for jobs and growth. We have a plan which has an innovation and science agenda, that has the defence industry plan, that has the important trade agreements which are going to provide new opportunities for our farmers and for service industries. Our plan that really wants to make sure that we can provide tax cuts for small business and hardworking families, our plan that can make sure that we have a sustainable budget that cracks down on tax loopholes and people who are avoiding tax, and importantly, if we do these things we know that we will have the capacity to fund hospitals and roads and schools.
Also, it’s important to recognise, I think, that there is a threat on the horizon to our plan for jobs and growth and that threat is in the form of a potential alliance between the Australia Labor Party and the Australian Greens. We know very well what the experience was when the Greens and the Labor Party were in alliance last time. There was the government of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. Tasmanians know all too well what the experience is of a Labor-Greens alliance. It doesn’t represent a golden age, what it would represent is another dark age. It’s important that Australians recognise that despite what the Australian Labor Party says, if Labor win office and if they need to, that they will form an alliance with the Australian Greens. Labor will say no to the Greens right up until the point that they say yes.
JOURNALIST:
Why Hobart to open an exhibition like this?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, this is the home of the shell necklaces, and it’s terrific that the people in Tasmania have the opportunity, through this wonderful institution, to see these important Aboriginal works, but it’s also really important that the rest of the nation has the opportunity to see these necklaces. These necklaces are incredibly intricate, they represent a connection to the history of Aboriginal Australia and Tasmania but they also represent a connection to the present of Aboriginal Australia here in Tasmania, and we hope that by seeing these works there will be a better appreciation of Aboriginal culture, but also we want to see that culture continue and thrive.
JOURNALIST:
Budget constraints have seen TMAG reduce its opening hours in recent months. Is there a greater role for the Federal Government to play in supporting institutions such as this?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well the Federal Government supports institutions such as this through a number of ways. We have the Visions of Australia Programme; we also have the Catalyst Funding Program, which institutions can make applications for. The Australian Government’s prime funding vehicle for the arts is obviously through the Australia Council but one of the reasons why we established the Catalyst Program is so that museums, for instance, can make applications for Commonwealth funding, something that previously there really wasn’t the opportunity for them to do.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, in the Federal Budget there wasn’t a huge amount for Tasmania, this is one of the first announcements we’ve seen since the election was called. Do you think for some people a priority might be infrastructure announcements or something like that?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well we do have a plan for Tasmania and some elements of it that have previously been announced. There was the funding for the new Ice breaker, there was the funding for the extension of the Hobart runway, there was an improvement to the Tasmanian Freight equalisation scheme, so there are a number of elements of our Tasmanian plan but we will have a plan for Tasmania for this election.
JOURNALIST:
Tasmania sits in a slightly unique place when it comes to free to air television. Can you guarantee that Tasmania viewers won’t be worse off under changes to reach rules?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Yes, in the proposals to remove the reach rule we have important protections for regional media so that if there was a trigger event occasioned by a reconfiguration of ownership that saw that entity exceed 75% audience reach nation-wide then there would be some new local content protections which would come in, so the local content requirement of 120 points per week would be increased to 150 so there are important protections in the legislation.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, can you just tell us where the governance review of TMAG is up to?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Yeah. So, the governance review is nearing completion and there are obviously a number of recommendations to come out of that process that are under consideration, and we’ll be announcing further details around that as part of a budget review process obviously but also in due course.
JOURNALIST:
Was this review late, was it meant to be finished by the end of last year?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
No, it’s not late, there were obviously matters that needed to be consulted on with, most importantly, the trustees who currently have the responsibility for day to day management of your superintendents of the museum, if you like , and obviously key stakeholders, so it’s important that those processes occur before any change is made.
JOURNALIST:
But last year in estimates, Minister, you said that the review was going to be done by the end of last year, by anyone’s measure that is late.
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Yep, so the first step of the review was to produce a discussion paper, if you like, so that step was completed by the end of the year, but it was important to consult with key stakeholders on what came out of that discussion paper before making any final decisions that would impact on the museum.
JOURNALIST:
Is it time to adopt a different approach when it comes to funding for facilities like TMAG? Do we need to at least examine the possibility of a cover charge?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Well what we have, I guess, with the current legislative arrangements for the museum, is a very old piece of legislation that doesn’t reflect what is good contemporary governance practice, if you like, so there were some changes that need to be considered. Certainly I think the trustees wanted to take a different course with the ay the museum is currently structured and the relationship between the museum, the department and the minister and it was important to consider what that new model might look like. The Auditor-General also had some concerns with the current structure of the museum and the legislative framework, so we’ve taken all of that on board, we’ve consulted broadly and there will be more to be announced.
JOURNALIST:
So is a cover charge under consideration?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
A cover charge is not something that’s under consideration at the moment. The issue of opening hours which I know the media has had an interest in is still under consideration and as I said these matters will be discussed in the context of the budget, the strategic plan and the finalisation of the recommendations of that review.
JOURNALIST:
When you say opening hours are under consideration are you looking at opening for longer hours or fewer?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
So the main concern has been around the closure on Mondays so as I communicated, that is still under active consideration in the context of the budget and also the strategic plan and of course the governments review a well.
JOURNALIST:
Last year your wording about TMAG in Estimates was ‘at no clear strategic direction and that the government system wasn’t working’ so what’s changed since then?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
So that is the issue that was the trigger for the review, if you like, so those are the matters that we are seeking to address through the review and potential changes to the government structure. The strategic plan is nearing completion and I expect we will be in a position to release that in the not too distant future, so that will provide a clear direction for the Museum but also we will be announcing in the future some potential changes to the government structure as well, but all of this will be consulted on.
JOURNALIST:
Would you envisage that jobs will remain the same or go up or go down after that review is finished?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Really, that’s hypothetical. I think the first step is to indicate what the government structure potentially will look like. There is likely to be legislation that will be consulted on, so there is still much work to be done. But certainly the issue of jobs is not something that’s going to be particularly impacted on by this change.
JOURNALIST:
When you say legislation what do you mean by that, what are you talking about?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Currently we have an old piece of legislation that governs the way the museum operates, so there is likely to be a new piece of legislation that governs the way the museum operates, which is more contemporary.
JOURNALIST:
Do you envisage that there will be a greater pace or greater need for federal funding as TMAG goes on?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
Well of course we welcome federal funding, and the Minister has indicated that the opportunities that museums now have through the new programme to apply for funding and the funding that we have announced today is just the sort of funding that is beneficial for the museum. Of course there is an important role for the state in funding these institutions, but to enable a museum such as this to tour an exhibition like the shell necklace exhibition is very important and that is where the federal government can continue to assist the museum.
JOURNALIST:
Regarding closing on Mondays there was an estimate late last year that that has saved up within $100,000. You’re not likely to reopen on Mondays if you’re saving that kind of money are you?
VANESSA GOODWIN:
So the context in which this occurred was in previous years the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery had been over budgeted by an average of $1M a year so a savings of over $100,000 in that context is not insignificant. Now, the trustees took on board the concerns that we had about the museum overspending its budget and they suggested the closing hours as an option, which I backed. Now obviously there have been concerns about the opening hour issue and it’s under consideration.
[ends]