David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

  (a) in April 2019 the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories tabled a report on its inquiry into Canberra's national institutions, titled Telling Australia's Story—and why it is important;

  (b) the report made 20 recommendations and was informed by some 83 submissions and several public hearings with witnesses from every major cultural institution;

  (c) the report's conclusions and recommendations were supported across the political spectrum;

  (d) unfortunately, 16 months on from the tabling of the report the Government is yet to respond to its recommendations;

  (e) Government inaction on these recommendations is having a detrimental effect on the operation of these national treasures, including but not limited to the:

     (i) National Gallery, which is expected to lose about 10 per cent of their workforce;

     (ii) National Library, which has modified its collecting strategy to remove Japan, Korea, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar from its list of priority countries from its Asia Collection; and

     (iii) National Australian Archives, which is preparing to lose large sections of its 117,000 hours of magnetic tape archives unless additional resources for digitisation are provided; and

  (f) these challenges outlined in the report are being further amplified by current COVID-19 restrictions;

(2) recognises that Canberra's cultural institutions play a critical role in telling our collective national story; and

(3) calls on the Government to immediately table a substantive and detailed response to the report's recommendations.

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