Motions

Adelaide Festival Centre

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (16:15): I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises the historical and cultural significance of the Adelaide Festival Centre;

2. Acknowledges its importance to the arts community in South Australia, Australia and globally; and

3. Calls on the government and the Festival Centre Trust to ban all advertisements of promotions for any form of gambling from being projected onto the Festival Centre's distinctive and iconic architecture and roofline.

I rise to speak to my motion to recognise the historical and cultural significance of the Adelaide Festival Centre and to prevent its exploitation by promoters of the gambling industry. While New South Wales was still running lotteries to get the money to finish off its iconic Sydney Opera House, South Australia was already leading the art world in this country with its own multipurpose Festival Centre, just behind us on the banks of the Torrens.

It opened in 1973, three months before the Opera House, making it Australia's first multipurpose arts centre, thanks to the vision of former premiers Steele Hall and Don Dunstan. Designed by John Morphett, it was built in three stages, costing a total of $21 million. Compare that to the $102 million for the Opera House.

As a young reporter for The News I attended one of the first TV broadcasts there, Ernie Sigley's Adelaide Tonight show on NWS9. I was awestruck by its magnificent design inside and out. It was modern and built to the high standards demanded of a performing arts centre. Even today the old girl, with its annexes, the Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre plus the amphitheatre, scrubs up pretty well, hosting musicals, live theatre, opera or the occasional rock act. South Australians are extremely proud of this building, paid for by South Australians.

Of course, it is also the spiritual and dedicated home of our world-famous Festival of Arts. It is a national treasure for the arts in this country. Like the Opera House our Festival Centre has distinctive roof features that make it stand out. We saw the controversy that erupted in Sydney recently when the Opera House management was bullied first by radio shock jock Alan Jones and then by the state's own Premier into displaying on its sails a promotion for a gambling event—the horse race bizarrely called The Everest, which claims to be the richest in the world. You first need to contribute $600,000 if you want a runner in it.

A petition against the promotion attracted 10 times more signatures than the 40,000-odd who attended this instantly forgettable sprint. The New South Wales government claimed a hollow victory because of the worldwide coverage the furore received—hardly the type of endorsement you would want for your city or for such an iconic and beautiful place like the Opera House. Nevertheless, I do not want to see the same thing happen here, say to promote the Adelaide Cup, which needs all the help it can get, or any other event or venue linked to the gambling industry.

This is an arts and community centre, not a billboard to be rented out to the well-heeled sector which preys on the vulnerabilities of gamblers and has little social conscience for the damage it does. Let me add that I have no objection to the centre's sloping white roof being used to promote the centre's own events or significant cultural and historic activities in our community.

My motion calls on the state government and the Festival Centre Trust to respect the Festival Centre's integrity and standing, and ban all advertisements that promote any form of gambling from being projected.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.