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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-05-31 Daily Xml
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Centre of Democracy

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:13): Today, I would like to put on record my excitement at seeing the Centre of Democracy opened and taking its place as one of the cultural institutions on North Terrace. An election announcement by Premier Weatherill prior to the 2014 election, the Centre of Democracy goes some way to replacing the Constitutional Museum that occupied Old Parliament House in this precinct until 1995.

Even though the Australian Electoral Commission still maintained an education centre in their office at 1 King William Street, that too was closed in the early 2000s. The loss of both these places left a big hole in the progress of encouraging interest in the democratic process and the value of the vote for schoolchildren and adults alike.

With this new addition and a new parliamentary outreach soon to be underway, I can confidently inform members and the wider South Australian public that you will all benefit greatly from the establishment of this new exhibition space located in the Institute Building on the corner of Kintore Avenue and North Terrace, beside the State Library of South Australia. It does have disability access and it will be open all the times that the Library is open.

This has all happened under the new leadership of the History Trust of South Australia, formerly known as History SA. Greg Mackie, in his speech last Wednesday, during the opening of the Centre of Democracy, at the end of the outstandingly successful History Month, told us about the Centre of Democracy being a collaborative project led by the History Trust in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. At this point, I must single out Alan Smith for his particularly prominent support for the Centre of Democracy project.

I know that many people were involved in the early days of this concept and I thank all of them. The centre's name was chosen to encourage the sense that it is a place that tells stories and fosters activity. I quote from Mr Mackie's speech:

As a non-partisan place of stories about how people-power has—can—and will change the ways we are represented and governed over time, we intend to connect with citizen-centric organisations around the state, and to recognise that because democracy's journey is frequently contested, it is also a contest of ideas.

We will be active—but not activist.

It is appropriate that the Centre of Democracy has its home in the old heritage listed Institute Building, part of the library for decades, because institutes were once all over the state and the State Library of South Australia in fact grew from that network of places of access to learning and resources—books in particular, beautiful books.

The Centre of Democracy will house primary objects to help tell the story of democracy. Initial loans came from Steven Cheng. He has loaned Don Dunstan's pink shorts, which actually made the newspapers and many of the media outlets. We also have objects on loan from Julie Ellis, Will Seargent, and this parliament, which has lent a page of the original petition. The Parliament Research Library of South Australia has lent books and, of course, the Muriel Matters Society has loaned some of its objects as well. I quote again from Greg Mackie's speech:

We have been fortunate to work with committed and creative people and companies to bring this project to fruition, and I want to formally acknowledge and thank them for their creativity and their passion above and beyond, on tight budgets—and even tighter timelines.

Exhibition design is by Arketype. Another creative group—Sandpit—have created the interactive digital artwork—The Democracy Machine.

I urge all members to go down and have a look at that.

An interactive digital wall has been designed and delivered in record time by Molten Studios. And the website, Speakers' Corner and digital object labels are by Digitalbarn. Each of these great South Australian companies deserve to prosper.

Conservation services have been provided by our sibling government organisations Artlab Australia—the State Library of South Australia—and object photography by Kylie Macey.

The project team is drawn from both the History Trust and the State Library: Kath Button, Kristy Kokegei, Andrew Piper and Allison Russel and, of course, curator Craig Middleton and the director of the Migration Museum, Mandy Paul, as project manager.

We also need to thank Madelena Bendo, Teresa Brook, Britt Burton, Amy Dale, Jude Elton, Laura Evans, Prue MacDonald and Michelle Toft. Making this new venture possible has included other people deserving of acknowledgment: Kristy Rebbeck, Bev Scott, Corinne Ball, Jessamy Benger, Oliver Scholey, Catherine Manning, Jenny Scott, Lew Chapman and Toby Woolley.

I would like to also acknowledge my colleague the Minister for The Arts for his help in establishing and opening the facility, and also the member for Ashford, the Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith, and the executive of the Muriel Matters Society, especially Robin Matters, who is the president. By bringing the Muriel Matters story to life, we have been able to highlight the importance of the South Australian story, its place in the world and to show that we were first to give women the vote and the right to stand, dual suffrage in 1894. I commend the Centre of Democracy to all members as a place very worthy of a visit and encourage their schools to visit also.

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