Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm incredibly excited to be getting home to Darwin on Thursday evening as the Darwin Festival kicks off. It's a fantastic fortnight of theatre, music, dance and art. This weekend Darwin hosts the prestigious NATSIAAs, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and the NIMAs, the National Indigenous Music Awards.

The Territory punches so far above its weight with our world-class arts scene that will be on show. We were the only festival running worldwide in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic. Last year they were very agile as the southern lockdowns hit—which everyone's trying to forget—cancelling, postponing and rebooking performances so that Territorians wouldn't miss out.

I'd like to congratulate outgoing artistic director Felix Preval, who's done a great job of steering the ship of the festival for six years during a really challenging climate for artists, and to welcome the incoming artistic director, Kate Fell. She has big shoes to fill, but I'm sure she'll fill them very well.

I'd like to encourage all of my colleagues, all the staffers, all the staff here at Parliament House, to come up to Darwin. It's the dry season. The weather is stellar. We have the best performances that you could possibly believe. It will blow your mind. Feel free to come up and visit us in the Top End for the Darwin Festival. (Time expired)

See this speech in context