Tobacco Products Regulation (Artistic Performances) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 18 November 2015.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:08): I rise on behalf of the Greens to briefly indicate our support for the Tobacco Products Regulation (Artistic Performances) Amendment Bill. This bill is a very small and simple bill that will ease the operations of those theatre productions that seek to incorporate the smoking of a cigarette, for example, into their productions and enable them to seek and gain the permissions to do so in a much more streamlined manner. Currently, I understand, these things can take many months, and that is unwieldy and unworkable for many theatre companies.

It is a tiny bill so it is quite odd that it is before us. I would have thought that perhaps this matter could have been addressed in either one of the omnibus bills or with a raft of reforms to support the arts industry. There is great discussion within the arts industry itself around the range of reforms that we could be looking at to ensure that we are not only are proud of our long history and tradition of being the festival state, of having an enterprising and visionary arts sector, but indeed debating in this place the way this government and this parliament could support the artistic and cultural life of our state for the 21^st century.

On that, I recommend to members to take heed of the publication that is hot off the presses, released just this weekend, entitled Adelaide 2055: Transforming a creative breeding ground into a city of sustainable arts and culture, A Vision for South Australia's Future Powered by Culture, the Arts and Creative Industries. It has been put out by the Arts Industry Council of South Australia.

I welcome the action that the Arts Industry Council has taken. Indeed, last year nearly 200 members of South Australia's arts community came together to talk about the future, and they envisaged a city and a state with an enterprising future powered by culture, the arts and creative industries. They have a document here that is the beginnings of the agreed plan for that future. They are still taking submissions, and I know that they welcome the conversation about the role the arts can play.

However, when we talk about all this vibrancy or innovation—vibrancy at state level or innovation at a federal level—it is the arts that epitomise these particular words, and South Australia is uniquely positioned, as the Arts Industry Council document says, to develop the interconnectedness necessary to deliver the vision. We have the talent here, we have a great state, we have the ability to capitalise on the arts and on our festivals, and to support our arts makers and the artistic enterprises of this state at all levels. Whether it is a course on live music, as I am often wont to bang on about in this place, or theatre, as this bill slightly touches on today with easing their ability to have someone smoking on stage where it is appropriate for the production, or the bigger picture of ensuring that we have the right black boxes, we have the building of crowds, we have the supporting of an industry.

When we have lost groups such as Urban Youth in recent years we need to really nurture our arts industry and make sure that we do not lose such precious things in the future. I know that particular group will live on, but of course its legacy has been seen in the talent from South Australia that treads the world stage on both the silver screen and in a variety of both backroom and performance options. With those few words I commend this bill to the council, but I look forward to more substantial pronouncements on the arts from the Weatherill government in the near future.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.T. Ngo.

At 17:31 the council adjourned until Tuesday 8 December 2015 at 10:15.