YOUTH ARTS

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:55): Will the Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts outline the support that is available to youth arts in South Australia and, further, tell us how the business community has responded to government calls to back initiatives such as Come Out and ASSITEJ?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:55): I thank the member for Ashford for her question, and I acknowledge her great interest in youth affairs, particularly as a former minister for youth affairs in South Australia. I am delighted to answer this question.

As members would know, South Australia has an enviable reputation for the strength of its youth arts sector. Traditionally, it has been difficult to raise funds for youth arts from the corporate sector, but this year I am very pleased to say that we have tremendous support from this sector. I am pleased that members from the corporate sector are in the gallery today. Next year, South Australia will host the Olympics of youth arts when the 16th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Young People will take place here in South Australia between 9 and 18 May. Yesterday, I was pleased to announce generous corporate sponsorship for ASSITEJ, and I would like to inform the house of its sponsors and how much money they are putting in. National Pharmacies is the main sponsor and has committed $150,000 to this event; IGA (Independent Grocers of Australia) is committing $100,000 to the event; and BHP Billiton is committing $75,000 from its Youth Arts Fund. Altogether, that is $325,000 from corporate sponsorship for ASSITEJ.

ASSITEJ 2008 will be the culmination of three years of planning from the time South Australia won the right to hold the event in Montréal, Canada, in 2005. The planning will result in a brilliant major event in the world of theatre for children and young people. I am also pleased to announce that, besides the state government's core funding of $875,000 for ASSITEJ, we have also been able to provide $70,000 through the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the health department to make much of the festival's program free to many participants, especially young indigenous South Australians. The Department of Health is delighted to partner with ASSITEJ and will use this unique opportunity to target key health messages about fighting obesity and promoting physical fitness to young people. In addition, the Public Transport Division of the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure is providing 2,500 student daytrip Metro tickets, worth about $9,500, for school groups attending ASSITEJ festival events.

South Australia's sponsorship partnerships in youth arts are winning recognition. Port Adelaide Football Club and the Australian Festival for Young People won the National Australia Bank's small to medium enterprise award at the recent South Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF). In Sydney on 25 October they will compete in the National ABAF awards. BHP Billiton and the South Australian Youth Arts Board will also contest the National ABAF awards. They are finalists in the Australia Council Arts for Young People award category for their four-year partnership, worth $1 million, which I have been told is the most generous sponsorship for youth arts ever in Australia.

Individuals are helping youth arts, too. Last month, on Wednesday 19 September, I was at Carclew where generous people supported a fundraiser for Urban Theatre of Youth by bidding a total of $8,500 at auction for artworks by professional artists and others who were not so professional—a bidding war even took place between two citizens keen to buy a painting by our Premier. It was an outstanding piece of work, and it went for $1,600. It was a magnificent piece of work with a red background and a yellow foot. It had deep symbolic meaning.

The Hon. M.D. Rann interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: 'Putting one's foot in it,' as the Premier says—and it was, in fact, the Premier's foot. I also look forward to providing more information to the house on next year's exciting international festival, ASSITEJ, in the months to come. I wish the best of luck to our ABAF finalists for the national awards. I also inform the house that the famous Australian actor Hugh Jackman is the proud ambassador for ASSITEJ.