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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-13 Daily Xml
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Motions

Adelaide Festival Centre Anniversary

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (11:12): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that this year is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia’s first major capital city arts venue, known as the heart of the arts in this festival state;

(b) commends the Adelaide Festival Centre, and all who have supported it with their philanthropy, their volunteer efforts, their labour and creativity, and their patronage over the last 50 years;

(c) recognises the extraordinary ongoing economic, educational and cultural contribution made by the Adelaide Festival Centre and its associated entities and activities over the last 50 years, today and into the future; and

(d) condemns the Malinauskas Labor government for dramatically cutting the Festival Centre’s budget in its 50th anniversary year, despite its economic, educational and cultural contribution to our state.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to move this important motion this morning. Not a hundred metres from where we stand in this building is an extraordinary piece of architecture, an extraordinary piece of the cultural firmament of South Australia: the Adelaide Festival Centre.

It is the work of successive parliaments and successive premiers. The Playford, Hall and Dunstan governments all have their hands very firmly on the foundation of the Festival Centre, which has stood for 50 years as the heart of the arts in South Australia, a centre where world-renowned artists, singers, performers and actors have been able to ply their trade and thrill and excite audiences from South Australia and beyond.

The Festival Centre predates the Sydney Opera House. It is indeed a national leader in its work and, as a result of decisions of the Weatherill government and the Marshall government, it is refreshed and able once again, as it has before, to present works in an appropriate and modern environment.

The Adelaide Festival itself has had world premieres of major plays, operas and examples of modern and traditional arts that are the envy of places around the world. The work done by the Festival Centre—and I acknowledge in particular the leadership of Douglas Gautier AM—has had an impact on Adelaide's position as a UNESCO City of Music.

It is an unusual set of circumstances that we are able to achieve our status as a UNESCO City of Music, despite not having a concert hall. I suspect that we are probably the only UNESCO City of Music not to have one. A lot of that heavy lifting of performance at that elite level has been done over the years by the Adelaide Festival Centre, and the active engagement of the centre, its board, its foundation and its executive team has no doubt put us in the position where we are able to do that.

The work of the Festival Centre continues throughout the year, not just at festival time, and much of the significant levels of performance are long shows, both international and locally produced, and also the festivals for which the Festival Centre is responsible. We have the OzAsia Festival coming up, which is a highlight of the year.

A number of members of parliament are reflecting on the number of members of our community who are looking forward to engaging in the OzAsia Festival, experiencing art and culture from our near neighbours in South-East Asia, South Asia and East Asia—not only performances from those countries but also performances from Australian artists of Asian heritage and collaborations between Australian artists and companies and Asian artists and companies. This is an exciting time of the year.

This year, we have a particular focus on dance and music, visual arts, and theatre, and that will be a very exciting time; it is very important. There are also a number of other festivals, including the Come Out Festival, as was, DreamBIG as is now. There is nothing in the legislation saying that it has to stay the DreamBIG Festival.

I put in my two bits for my fond memories of Come Out. That children's festival is an extraordinary thing. The Minister for Arts and I earlier this year heard 1,500 voices in the Festival Theatre singing together and it was a very exciting moment for me. I think it reminded me very much of things I did when I was eight or nine years old, participating in Come Out.

Those performances for our children, getting them excited in the theatre, getting them excited in arts, are really important in the development of those children. When young people are engaged enthusiastically in music, it advantages them in their education generally. Performing arts are often the thing about school that can get some kids, who are not necessarily the most enthusiastic about STEM or sports, to be enthusiastic about going to school on a daily basis, and are able to engage with the broader curriculum because of their particular enthusiasm for that subject.

There are a number of performing arts companies in South Australia that do this important work of engaging with children and inspiring in them a love of the arts, but I think the Festival Centre is particularly important in this space. Companies like Patch, like Windmill Theatre, in South Australia are so good at pitching their arts towards young viewers. Those young audiences being able to go to the Space Theatre, the Dunstan Playhouse as is now, or even on occasion the main theatre, is really exciting for those children, to be able to participate, and the way it is set up is so effective at that.

The Children's Artspace upstairs at the Festival Theatre, another important initiative taken during the Marshall government's time, engages with schools. Several times each year, visual artists, working artists, working with schools are often able to have their combined and collaborative works presented in that gallery space upstairs and, with the light, it is fantastic and inspires those young people to be engaged in the arts, which is good in itself, delightful in itself, and the benefits to their education is great.

The member for Frome reminds me that the Primary Schools Music Festival kicks off in coming days. Members of parliament would be aware of this, but I know that the many people watching this telecast through their computers at home may not have had the opportunity to go to a Primary Schools Music Festival.

The Department for Education leadership in this space is famous. It, too, celebrated I think its 100th anniversary, or potentially an even larger anniversary, a couple of years ago. It has been contributing through our public schools system for over 100 years to our children's love of performance, their confidence, their collaboration and, particularly, their interest in music.

When you have 700 or 800 voices on stage all singing and dancing at once in their coloured T-shirts, their parents are proud but it is an extraordinary experience for them. The Catholic Schools Music Festival always follows not too long after the Primary Schools Music Festival. Again, for our 100 Catholic schools around South Australia, it is a similarly important experience.

All of the range of uses for the Festival Centre are to be celebrated. There are not too many South Australians who have not had some positive experience with our Festival Centre—even if they are not theatre buffs themselves, even if they are not people who go to the Adelaide Festival for performances—because there is such a diverse range of exercises.

I went recently with one of my goddaughters to Mary Poppins, which is a substantial production, a worldwide production, a big-budget production. Indeed, the Australian performers who were integrated into that opportunity were able to enjoy that amazing set and the amazing special effects and staging. I think that there is a pride that we can take in the way that our Festival Centre is able to engage with our community and put on productions for both mass appeal and, indeed, highbrow audiences, and do the same quality of work in either case.

The Festival Centre is a large operation. It has a significant budget and it is supported every year by substantial support from the state government. It does indeed run a very commercial operation. It seeks to maximise revenue that can then be reapplied into supporting the arts in South Australia and to expanding its offerings of festivals and engagements.

Particularly, there is an outreach program through Education to low-SES schools so that vulnerable students and children who might not otherwise easily be able to engage with the arts so successfully can have that access. It has a significant social agenda and support for equity opportunities and spreading those opportunities across our community. In and of itself, I would say it also has a significant tourism driver. It is supportive of the economy, supportive of maximising South Australia's artistic economy and tourism opportunities.

During the COVID pandemic, obviously there were dramatically reduced opportunities for live performances with audiences in South Australia. That had a significant impact on revenue for the Festival Centre and other performing arts, and all artistic companies around Australia suffered badly during the pandemic. The Marshall Liberal government again stepped in with support—significant support, early support compared with some states in 2020 in many ways—and then in 2021 significant support for the Festival Centre, understanding the significant challenges that were faced.

There was extra supplementary funding provided by the Morrison and Marshall governments during the pandemic. When we look at funding, comparing 2020 and 2021 with 2022, as I am sure will be pointed out, is not comparing apples with apples, but the base funding grant itself was dramatically cut by the government in 2022 upon their coming to office.

It is a blunt instrument, an efficiency dividend, but it gets applied to some organisations more than to others. As one of the more significant beneficiaries of government support and government funding, the Festival Centre was the recipient of some of the more significant cuts. At the same time as their expenses were going up, the Malinauskas Labor government applied cuts.

It is worth noting that for many months I have raised with the minister—most recently, I think, in estimates, but possibly more recently than that even—the question of what support the Malinauskas Labor government was going to give the Festival Centre in its 50th anniversary year, a year you would expect would be celebrated with significant extra work, significant extra performances, things that could mark the special occasion that is our 50th anniversary year of this institution that we should be celebrating. I got back the answer yesterday to that question that was taken on notice during estimates from the minister, who said:

An additional $200,000 has been provided to support the Festival Centre in its 50th year celebrations to be used towards various celebration activities planned over the second half of the 2023 calendar year.

The second half of the year we are in. I can only imagine how enthusiastically the executive team at the Festival Centre, and all the people who work in the Festival Centre and all the supporters and subscribers have responded to that news.

We have had a couple of performances, galas, highlighting South Australian artists during the 50th anniversary year, but the late application of this funding, such as it is, I think has dramatically curtailed what could have been an extraordinary year of celebrations. Opportunities have been missed to bring back headline artists who have featured in the Festival Centre over five decades, opportunities to have really special shows of world class that could have been advertised worldwide to celebrate Adelaide.

It is a tourism and economic opportunity that has been missed due to the fact that we are in the second half of the 50th anniversary year before the government has been able to stump up anything at all for the Adelaide Festival Centre. It is an opportunity missed, and it is a real disappointment, and it pales into insignificance compared to the loss which we have explored in estimates, and we have explored in the Auditor-General's Report.

No matter which way you cut it, the Festival Centre has approaching a million dollars less in its government support than it did before. I am not comparing with the COVID boosts. I am comparing the base funding level and what is effectively applied, and the increasing costs the Festival Centre has applied. We are not seeing significant extra support. I do not think it even got the supplementation indexation; I think that was only for not-for-profits, which this would not apply to.

There is, I think, a real onus on this government to look at the way it looks at the arts in South Australia, the economic opportunities for tourism, the economic opportunities for when we are trying to attract the best and brightest.

The government talks about attracting 100 of the world's top researchers to the new university—people of that nature, the sort of people who would lift the Adelaide University's rankings substantially. Many of those are significant arts lovers, and it is of significant benefit to our state's economy to have a thriving artistic scene, for our state's tourism market to have a thriving artistic scene and an inspiration for our creative young people in South Australia to have a thriving artistic scene.

So far, although there has been some support for the Fringe, some modest support for live music and there has been some support for the Film Festival and an annualisation of what was a usual grant of a million dollars for the Festival, otherwise this government has done very little for the arts, highlighted by these cuts to the Festival Centre, and I urge them to do better in the years ahead.

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (11:27): I seek to move an amendment to the motion from the member for Morialta:

Delete paragraph (d) and insert the following in lieu thereof:

(d) acknowledges the additional financial contribution of the Malinauskas Labor government to the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust to assist in celebrating the Adelaide Festival Centre's 50th anniversary year, and to promote its economic, educational, and cultural contribution to our state.

I think, broadly, that both sides of parliament have over many years been incredibly supportive of the Adelaide Festival Centre, so in its 50th year I think it is important that we show some bipartisanship in celebrating the good that has come from the Adelaide Festival Centre. In that light, I certainly hope that my amendment will be supported by all in the chamber.

Both sides of government have supported the Adelaide Festival Centre over the past 50 years. The doors first opened on 2 June 1973 along the River Torrens. The location of the AFC is really important. It is a really important part of the Kaurna story, and for thousands of years it has been a site for congregating, singing, dancing, storytelling and ceremonies for the Kaurna people. Of course, the Adelaide Festival Centre continues this tradition and has for the past 50 years.

Quite proudly, it is the oldest national performing arts venue in Australia, and the member for Morialta mentioned it did open three months before the Sydney Opera House, which is something we will always be able to claim as the first. It is really one of Australia's premier performing acts venues. With the Premier, I had the pleasure to attend the 50th anniversary performance, which apparently for the member for Morialta was not enough. It was an incredible celebration not only of 50 years of the Adelaide Festival Centre but the incredible festivals that the centre hosts.

The Cabaret Festival, one of my favourites, was celebrated. OzAsia is an incredible festival that was mentioned last night at a dinner with the Premier before his trip to China and something that the Australian Asian community hold very dear to their hearts. The great Slava Grigoryan does a great job with the Guitar Festival; and there is OUR MOB; and of course, DreamBIG, which the member for Morialta talked about and which is actually the longest running children's festival in the world. I do not know if members know that, but it is the longest running children's festival in the world.

OUR MOB is holding an art exhibition at the moment in the Adelaide Festival Centre, and I bought an artwork. Jack Buckskin's son Vincent did a painting, which I acquired and I am waiting for it to be delivered—an early acquisition of his great work, I am sure.

The Adelaide Festival Centre is a unique public asset that South Australians love and hold dear to their hearts that has been supported substantially by the state government over the years. There is an annual grant, which was affected significantly by cuts from the Marshall Liberal government in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 years. Of course, COVID support was given. As the member for Morialta said, we are no longer comparing apples with apples if we are comparing COVID to post COVID.

This year we celebrated the 50th anniversary with a gala celebration. An additional $200,000 was provided for that 50th anniversary and it was a great night. We are also providing an extra $390,000 for the OzAsia Festival that is opening next month. That is part of the extra money that would otherwise not have been there if we had not won the last election. Indeed, we may have seen more cuts from those opposite.

As an iconic public asset, not only does it receive state government support but the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation does an incredible job. I want to thank Miranda Starkey as the chair of that foundation. Since 2010, it has raised over $11 million and almost $1 million in the 2022-23 financial year. A couple of weeks ago, there was a fundraising gala dinner I was at where the foundation raised an incredible $1.4 million, and $1 million of that came from the incredible philanthropist Pamela Wall. I want to thank her deeply for that contribution. My husband ended up with an electric motorbike at the end. I am not sure how I feel about that, but it was for a very worthy cause.

The Festival Centre has been on a remarkable journey over the years and it really is an icon in South Australia. The Festival Centre idea first emerged in the late fifties when Adelaide was experiencing a cultural renaissance. We were influenced by the Edinburgh International Festival, which I recently had the pleasure of attending for a couple of days. The South Australian government—both colours—recognised the need for a dedicated space to showcase our arts and foster creativity in the South Australian community.

In 1962, we established the Adelaide Festival of Arts and brought together local and international talents in various art forms for that festival, which is well regarded right around the world. It soon became apparent that we needed a dedicated venue. There were initial discussions about looking at Carclew House as the site until Premier Don Dunstan elevated that vision to the current site and the building of the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Construction of the Adelaide Festival Centre started in 1970. John Morphett and Sir Ian McLennan were the architects involved and they did an astounding job with the architectural style that became a symbol of South Australia. As I mentioned earlier, the Adelaide Festival Centre officially opened on 2 June 1973. The celebration was marked by an inaugural performance of John Antill's opera Corroboree, which captivated audiences and set the stage for decades of artistic excellence.

Since its inception, the Adelaide Festival Centre has served as a vibrant hub for a range of artistic endeavours—theatre, dance, music, opera and visual arts—and for local and international talent. We obviously have multiple venues there, in the Festival Theatre, the Dunstan Playhouse and the Space Theatre, and, of course, the revitalised Her Majesty's Theatre is under the banner of the AFCT as well. So there are a range of artistic expressions and a range of audience sizes that are catered for in that centre.

Some of our incredible home companies regularly perform there, including the State Theatre, the State Opera, the Adelaide Festival, the ASO, the Australian Dance Theatre, Brink, No Strings Attached, Gravity and Other Myths, Patch Theatre, Restless, Slingsby, and Windmill, and the Australian Ballet is coming back shortly. A range of incredible South Australian and Australian arts organisations perform their great work there.

Incredible artists have performed there over the years, including Dame Joan Sutherland, Mikhail Baryshnikov, David Helfgott, even Silverchair. The Sunday before last, Darren Criss, if anyone knows him, from Glee, was there, and I managed to sneak into his concert, so that was fantastic. The centre's commitment to fostering creativity has led to the establishment of numerous programs to develop artists and aspiring artists from young to old, and they do an incredible job.

We have had, obviously, a range of smash hits there. We started off the year with Hairspray, and Verdi’s Messa de Requiem was the centrepiece opera for the Adelaide Festival this year, which was incredible. Mary Poppins, as the member for Morialta mentioned, was an amazing stage show from Disney that came here and captivated audiences for weeks, which was fantastic. At the 50th anniversary spectacular in June, we had Slava and Sharon Grigoryan. Libby O'Donovan was the MC and a performer, and it was a really great night and something I am really proud of.

We really need to thank Don Dunstan for that pioneering vision, and I want to thank all the talented artists and performers who have graced those stages over the last 50 years. I thank Douglas Gautier and his team; the Chair, the Hon. Hieu Van Le; and the board for being such a pleasure to work with over the past 18 months. I sincerely look forward to the next 50 years of memories for South Australian families as the heart of arts in South Australia.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:37): I stand to support the motion in its original form. I will focus my remarks for the most part on paragraphs (a), (b) and (c), and in the interests of bipartisanship, here we are, recognising the 50th anniversary of this great institution. In fact, I do not think it is putting it inaccurately to say that it is the host of the best festival of all. So significant is it to our state's identity that it really is very much a state-defining institution. You do not need to look any further than messages on car numberplates over decades now.

The Festival Centre is indeed at the core of not only our state's identity but our state's cultural life. It is a gathering point in so many and such a variety of ways. I will just highlight a few. Also, I think on this occasion, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary, it is well that the minister adverts to Her Majesty's Theatre as being part of the responsibilities of the statutory corporation, the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, Her Majesty's Theatre having been so thoroughly renewed and reinvented and now able to show off the very best of all kinds of performance here in Adelaide as part of the assets of the trust. But the focus for the purposes of today's motion is the Festival Centre itself.

While we are addressing history, I think it is important to highlight that it was in fact Steele Hall who chose the site for the Festival Centre. It is important to identify because—and the minister adverted to it briefly as well—Carclew was in fact among those sites that had been initially thought about as being suitable for the establishment of a festival hall as early as the fifties and through the sixties. Torrens Parade Ground was considered as well along the way.

I think it is well documented and uncontroversial that Steele Hall in the course of his negotiations, including with the federal government, for support for the building of the Festival Centre ended up in negotiations with Prime Minister Gorton. He was given a choice as to how best to proceed. He secured the necessary vital funding, as is so often the case, the support from the federal government.

As I understand it, Carclew had been purchased by the Adelaide City Council sometime earlier with a view to being a festival hall. It is the reason, having been purchased from the Bonython family, that it has been the host and centre of youth arts, including the Come Out Festival, as the member for Morialta adverted to earlier.

Steele Hall had been inspired by his travels, including seeing what could be done on the riverbank when visiting the Thames. He came back and said, 'I've been inspired, and we need to do this on the riverbank.' The location that had been for a century or so the site of the City Baths was then, in that inspired way, to be the site for the building of the Festival Centre. Structured as it was at an appropriate angle to the grid and located by the riverside, it has proved to be an inspired choice of location.

The building took the course of three years and a change of government, and we saw that vision very much continued on in the nascent Dunstan government. I recognise as well the contribution of Premier Dunstan, a contribution that has been recognised in the recent renaming of The Playhouse, to be known more recently as the Dunstan Playhouse.

It is well also on the occasion of this 50th anniversary to recognise the sustained and dedicated work of its leader, Douglas Gautier AM. As CEO and Artistic Director of the Festival Centre since 2006, not quite 20 years, he has really been at the helm for a sustained, substantial period of the history.

I indicated I would make reference to just some highlights. The deputy leader, the member for Morialta, remarked about the success of the Festival of Music. That is one occasion which has stood out for me in a representative capacity but also as a parent.

To see the opportunity for really young primary school students to be on the main stage at the Festival Centre, the Festival Theatre, and to be present with a full hall and to have a rollcall read out of schools—tiny schools, some of them—that have travelled from distant parts of the state to have their moment on the Festival Theatre stage is always a moving occasion for me to see. I know what a significant role that that opportunity has played for all sorts of young people to participate in the Festival of Music.

In another way altogether, the exhibition of Aboriginal art that is known as OUR MOB and OUR YOUNG MOB, hosted by the Festival Centre in the Festival Centre Space, is a successful tradition that I expect will just continue to grow. Recently, it was hosted in a way that brought together OUR MOB and OUR YOUNG MOB, those two exhibitions, into one space. This year was another success, and I suspect that that will continue to grow.

I might just mention one other, in terms of a range of those different events and performances that go on at the Festival Centre. One that particularly stood out for me in May this year was the State Theatre Company's production of a play called Prima Facie. Prima Facie is a one-act play written by Suzie Miller and directed by David Mealor, with an extraordinary performance by Caroline Craig, who will be well known to many for the range of her television, film and theatre accomplishments, none greater than her inspired performance in Prima Facie. It is a play that I think will continue to have global success. It has particularly confronting subject matter, dealing with the difficulties in terms of proof and evidence in cases of sexual assault.

To witness an actor demonstrating such excellence in her craft on the stage and captivating an audience for the better part of an hour and a half uninterrupted, inhabiting the character of one person, was something that was a display of the genius of acting. For that to be able to be presented in the Space Theatre, in circumstances of that level of audience immediacy and intimacy, was an ideal setting for an excellent play superbly performed. Obviously, there are countless other examples of the activities that are carried on at the Festival Centre. May there be another 50 years and more ahead for the Festival Centre.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (11:47): It is my pleasure to rise and speak in support of the amended motion. I have spent so many hours at the Festival Centre over the years, enjoying theatre, dance, music and art exhibitions. It all started on 2 June 1973, a night when a full house packed the Festival Theatre for the first time as the theatre was officially opened by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at a gala performance of act 2, scene 1, of Beethoven's opera Fidelio and 'Choral' symphony.

Of course, the Festival Theatre is just one part of the centre, with the Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre, Artspace Gallery and Terrace completing the centre. I was at the Space just last Saturday night to enjoy the fantastic State Theatre production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. Next, I am looking forward to the State Theatre's production of The Dictionary of Lost Words, a play based on local author Pip Williams' novel.

I am particularly keen to see Tilda Cobham-Hervey perform in that production. She is a South Australian whom I have been following since her years at Cirkidz and her first film production as a teenager in 52 Tuesdays. I am also looking forward to seeing Brett Archer back on the stage in one of the lead roles in this theatre production—though I do know that, given he has grown a moustache especially for this production, his partner Elisa is particularly keen for rehearsals and performances to be finished.

I do have some favourite memories of the theatre, including The Australian Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, Something on Saturdays with my daughter Lucy—we spent so many of her childhood years in the foyer of the Festival and then watching a production—and my time working for Cirkidz in the crew at the Space Theatre.

Our push for a new arts venue began in the sixties, as our internationally renowned Adelaide Festival of the Arts started to outgrow the city's existing venues. The Adelaide Festival Theatre Act 1964 provided for the erection of the Festival Theatre building. As other members have stated, it was originally going to be on the site of Carclew in North Adelaide, but Liberal state Premier Steele Hall decided, after a visit to the Royal Festival Hall in London, that it would be located on its current site.

When Don Dunstan became Premier in 1970, he expanded the idea into a Festival Centre, incorporating multiple smaller venues, like the Playhouse and the Space. It was funded by a mix of state and federal funding and a public appeal that was oversubscribed within one week. South Australia was progressing at a great pace under the leadership of Premier Dunstan, with Aboriginal land rights first recognised, homosexuality decriminalised, the first female judge, the first Minister for the Environment appointed, antidiscrimination laws enacted and our beloved State Theatre Company established. What a fabulous time for South Australia.

Today, more than one million people a year visit the centre to attend the Adelaide Festival and witness performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre, Brink, Restless Dance Theatre, Slingsby, Patch Theatre, and No Strings Attached, which all have their home at the theatre. The centre is also home to the highly successful Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival and OzAsia.

In 2017, an Ernst and Young report found that the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust contributed more than $160 million in economic and social impact and led to the creation of 1,076 jobs in Greater Adelaide in the space of just 12 months and I am sure that part of the economic impact is the thousands of interstate and international visitors who visit the centre each year, in addition to those who come to WOMAD, the Fringe and our galleries and museums.

However, of course, the arts are not here purely for economic impact. We have an opportunity to share our stories through the arts to understand our world and better connect with others. I look forward to watching hundreds more performances over the coming years at Australia's first capital city multipurpose arts centre and I look forward to many more South Australian firsts, especially in the arts.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (11:51): It has been terrific to hear members' own experiences with the Festival Centre, which has inspired me to share some of my experiences, which started really just a few years after it was opened in 1973.

I was a high school student in the seventies at Salisbury High School. In the summertime, there were free concerts in the amphitheatre that is no longer there. Facing the river was an amphitheatre where the bands you saw on Countdown would come and play for free on a Sunday afternoon. It was a quick train ride from Salisbury station into Adelaide station, a short walk to the Festival Centre and you would be on the grass listening to bands you saw on television, which was just amazing. I was a young musician at that time, and it was great to have that easy access at the Festival Centre.

A few years later, after I had started my apprenticeship, I was offered some work building sets at the Festival Centre. Things were a little bit slow in the furniture business at that time—about 1983, I think it was—so the boss was very happy for me to have a number of weeks off without pay and I started work on building a set for Guys and Dolls. We all remember Ricky May, who was the star of the show.

I think what it demonstrates is that, when people think about the arts, they always think about those faces and names associated with the performance, whereas so many more people are employed behind the scenes in the arts and creative industries. I was fortunate to have witnessed that and to have been part of a production.

I actually spent most of my time there building the stairs. For anyone who has seen a production of Guys and Dolls, there is a lot of running up and down stairs and obviously a lot of dancing. I met other tradespeople who had been working full time in this area and they were very committed to the work they were doing.

I was invited to opening night as someone who had participated in the building of the set. Being a single man at the time, I was given two tickets, so I invited one of my bodybuilding partners—one of my mates I was bodybuilding with—to come and share the evening with me. So there we were, two bodybuilders turning up to see Guys and Dolls on a Saturday night, and the afterparty was fun as well. It was a great night. That was 40 years ago, before social media, so there is no evidence of it whatsoever.

I know that there are so many other people whose careers have started and been enhanced, people who are available to perform in the chorus when musicals come to town, who might not be working full time in the industry but love that opportunity to be available to be in the chorus or play a minor part when a big production comes to town. Of course, it is not just the musical and theatre arts that the Festival Centre supports. I remember seeing Jason Alexander there just before COVID came—a sold-out evening listening to a whole lot of his experiences with the production of Seinfeld.

The centre really has been an asset supported right across party politics. We heard from previous members about the process of how the site was identified and acquired by Steele Hall, and then of course we saw the supervision of the building and the project completed when Don Dunstan was the Premier. I have a very fond memory of Don Dunstan as Premier. As a teenager growing up in the outer suburbs, I did like the fact that he was a modern Premier and that there was a strong focus on social reform and on some of the finer things in life.

However, I do remember that when I was looking for an apprenticeship in 1979 the unemployment rate was in double figures. I went through a process of about nine months of continual job applications for that apprenticeship, from April 1979 right through until December. I still have the hundred letters of rejection that I referred to in my maiden speech, saying there was no position available and 'thank you for being one of the hundreds of people who applied for this position but, unfortunately, you have been unsuccessful'.

I am not quite sure that I agree that it was a wonderful time, but it was a time of significant change, not just in the social aspects of South Australia but also in the economic aspects, the economic prosperity of South Australia. Some of the traditional industries that were established here under Tom Playford were suffering from the changes in the environment around the world. International competitors, companies, were rationalising and when companies rationalise and they do not have their head office here in South Australia, unfortunately, they tend to rationalise here in South Australia. We saw a lot of major companies losing their head offices here in South Australia in the seventies and in the early eighties.

So, yes, it was a time of change and it is just so pleasing that we are able to see the Festival Centre still being a major piece of South Australia's culture and a major piece of infrastructure. It is enjoyed by many South Australians, anchoring, if you like, an industry here that is growing around the world. Creative industries are growing around the world as more and more people are buying services rather than items and things, and that is of course creating more demand for people in those creative industries.

Like the member for Morialta, I do not support the government's amendments. I can understand why the government would use its numbers to get those amendments up, but let's focus on those three parts of the motion that we all agree on because it is a wonderful institution for South Australians. I see it as a vehicle, whether it be through the school concerts that are performed there every year, whether it be through people participating in some other form or whether it be from people visiting and watching shows. It can change people's lives, and that is an important asset for the people of South Australia.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:00): I thank the minister, the member for Heysen, the member for Unley and the member for Gibson for their contributions to this motion.

I think that one thing we all agree on, as the member for Unley said, is that we all want to celebrate this incredible institution. It has been recognised by members on both sides that the foundation of the institution was the result of work from Labor and Liberal governments. It was initiated during the Playford era, then the first Labor government after that long period, then the Hall government and then the Dunstan government. It was a significant investment of the time and resources of the state, and it was a state-building project. That is something to be celebrated.

In that spirit, I also want to thank the minister because, usually in these debates, there is an amendment brought by the government that is overtly political, pointed and unreasonable. The minister has brought an amendment that, while I do not necessarily support it, is not especially political. In the opposition, we like to reward good behaviour, so while we are not necessarily supportive we are not going to divide against it. I commend the government for that, and I give back to those government members four minutes of their lives in response to that. I encourage other ministers to take note.

On a serious note, I think it may have been the member for Heysen or possibly the member for Unley who raised the issue of the amphitheatre, which is no longer there. I think it is worth thinking about because at the moment I understand there is a business case being developed for a concert hall. In my speech, I reflected on the fact that it is to the credit of the Festival Centre but nevertheless quite remarkable that we have been able to maintain our status as a UNESCO City of Music without a purpose-built concert hall.

I think many people, should the business case stack up, would ultimately like to see that development take place, but it would be a significant investment. It would take potentially multiple years and certainly, given the time it would take, I would hope at least two different governments—finishing with the Liberal government, obviously—for it to be completed. It may take time, and I recognise that. I hope that the minister, when she receives that business case if she has not already, will socialise that business case broadly because I think it is the sort of thing that could well benefit our state and benefit bipartisan support, obviously if the business case stacks up.

There is indeed a solution to short-term needs that could be delivered more quickly and at less cost while not necessarily being instead of—I explicitly say not instead of—a concert hall but potentially before a concert hall, and that is to have an open-air soundshell, the sort of place where you can have significant performances, performances in that festival precinct or elsewhere in the CBD, the sorts of things the amphitheatre provided but also the sorts of things that we used to have regularly.

Symphony Under the Stars was for many young people an introduction to classical music and for families a beautiful night out. It was incredibly expensive to stage, and without specific corporate sponsorship it has been unable to be staged for a period of time now. A number of people would remember Ennio Morricone performing themes from extraordinary musicals. I think there might have been an issue that night with the car race starting at the same time—and I have confirmation from the member for Gibson, who was there. I also remember Neil Finn; thankfully, that was on a different night.

Those sorts of performances are extraordinary but incredibly expensive to set up and establish to the quality required for the music. It is a popping up and a popping down, and it is a cost that is borne, but the lack of specific sponsorship for those events means that the people of South Australia miss out on some really great opportunities.

The soundshell can be scalable larger or smaller, and there are opportunities there that I encourage the minister to take up. The $200,000 that has been put forward is not going to do that, but hopefully that $200,000 will be applied to some terrific further performances, with the support of both sides of the house. I do encourage the government to think seriously about this proposal, which has been discussed for a little while.

I do not suggest it is an alternative to a potential concert hall, but I think it is something that would be worthy of consideration for the people of South Australia. If this government were to support it—again, as long as the business case for it stacks up—I believe it is something definitely worth considering, and I encourage the minister and the government to do so.

I commend the original motion to the house and, if it must be amended, then I suppose I still support the amended motion.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

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