Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I will deal with the questions from the member for Parkes first. As to the role of the RDAs, I have talked about the joining of the dots but it is not intended that the RDAs allocate the money. It is intended that the RDAs have input through the various mechanisms as to what priorities fit with their strategic vision. Obviously they can have input into the hospital round and the higher education round. And there is a requirement now for Infrastructure Australia to consult with the RDAs, so in terms of the broader infrastructure questions they can have input. But this is the challenge for a government seeking to entrench not just regional development but the localism concept. We have got to find a more effective way to have coordination across the silos, and not just the silos of the Commonwealth government but the silos of the state governments.

I see the RDAs as having an important role. That is why we have resourced them better. Some clearly are better resourced than others and we have got to build that capacity, but this is a new opportunity for them, and I think it is incumbent on all of us to work properly with that structure. We need to understand the important relationship with local government. The RDAs are not intended by any means to replace local government. Theirs is a different function. There are many local government representatives who sit on the RDAs, and we are looking to how we can strengthen the linkages so that we have got the three levels of government coming in.

My sincere condolences to the member for Moreton on his mother's passing at 78 years old. They bred them tough, and if she had nine kids she was some mum. But I do take the point. Culture and the arts are so important to us as a nation. A creative nation is a more productive nation. A creative nation is a nation whose cultural values improve—in interaction, expression, tolerance, understanding. The arts are not just something out there. You have a love of reading, and you are a writer as well as a reader. Like you, I have a great love of the Henry Lawson works. I think it is important we find more effective ways for getting this message out.

The budget has made some significant new input into the arts, particularly in the film area and particularly in post-production, that creative side of the industry. I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Miller studio where they were doing digitised animationforHappy Feet. There is also the games dimension. People should not think of games in terms of the issues of violence. These games involve interactive product development off the movie. In the member's own state, in Fortitude Valley, there is a huge games industry, and I visited some people involved in that as well.

Rising Sun studios in South Australia won an Academy award recently. For all intents and purposes that is where the Harry Potter movie is actually being made—with digital applications. The actors essentially are against green screens, but the whole movie—all of its content, all of its background—is being developed there.

I went the other night to the opening of Love Never Dies, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. He brought it here because it had not been successful in the West End. On stage he talked about the reason he came here—because of the production talent, creative talent and design talent that are here in Australia. We are recognised around the world for that creative thrust. We have to nurture it. We have to build it.

Next year is the National Year of Reading, and we will be making announcements as to how we are going to advance that. We need to find more effective ways by which we encourage more people to read, particularly people from ethnic backgrounds and people in the regions. We have made a major commitment in this budget ahead of the national cultural policy which we are developing and hopefully will announce at the end of this year. (Time expired)

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