Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you were embarking on a flight out of Launceston on January 17 this year, you may have been perplexed to watch a sea of passengers—160 in fact—disembark from a Qantas plan in a sea of purple and yellow, with a few glamorous drag queens leading the way. Welcome to Mona Foma 2020. In only the second year of the week-long's festival's move to Launceston, I can safely say that the event is reaching iconic status, drawing in a crowd of more than 50,000 people from across the state, nationally and even internationally.

I was not surprised to hear that, in a region which has a proud and strong arts and culture scene, 39 per cent of festival attendees in 2019 were from Northern Tasmania. I applaud festival director Brian Ritchie and his team for providing a diverse range of both free ticketed events for adults and families to enjoy. I was especially proud to show off the event, and our gorgeous city, to my colleague Minister Paul Fletcher. Minister Fletcher was the first federal arts minister to visit the event since its inception 12 years ago, and I was able to see firsthand how blown away he was by the incredible events put on by the festival, including Architects of Air, designed by UK artist Alan Parkinson, Architects of Air is a luminarium sculpture—a maze of light, colour and sound—and was an unbelievable experience. The minister and I were also lucky enough to experience the fantastic production of King Ubu, a collaboration between Mona Foma and Tasmania's own Terrapin Puppet Theatre. Set in the iconic Cataract Gorge, the larger-than-life puppet show, facilitated by funding from the arts Festivals Australia program, was a feast of music and satire. I was delighted to hear my colleague the federal member for Braddon, Gavin Pearce, scored a cheeky mention. As Terrapin's artistic director told the ABC, the collaboration with Mona Foma was groundbreaking. He went on to say:

We are a small company, and the ability to create a work of this scale is a huge achievement for us — and we can only do it in partnership with other organisations … It's been a significant investment from Mona Foma and by the Federal Government.

The artist Thomas Kinkade said that art transcends culture. I believe art also transcends economic and social boundaries, and should be accessible to all Australians. Government plays an important role in providing access to the arts, and I'm proud of the coalition government's commitment to supporting a wide range of arts events and projects in Northern Tasmania. The regional arts grant fund is an example of how the government does support regional arts across the country. Last year, the dance studio Stompin' received funding to develop and present Barcode, a site-specific dance work for young people between the ages of 13 and 30. Stompin' has been an integral part of the Northern Tasmania dance community since the 1990s and has had a positive impact on the lives of more than 5,000 young people from a diverse cross-section of the region, providing opportunities that may not otherwise be available in a regional city. Programs such as these are critical. Not only do they provide a cultural boost to our regional communities so that they remain vibrant cultural hubs; funding festivals in regional cities also gives local festivals a chance to attract first-rate artists, singers and writers. In Northern Tasmania, the Tamar Valley Writers Festival, a biannual event, is one of the largest writers festivals in Australia outside of a capital city, and it continues to attract nationally recognised authors and critics. For its 2020 festival, to be held in September, the federal government has provided $15,000 for the Hidden Stories project, a collaboration between cultures which supports Tasmanian Aboriginal artists and art workers to create and tell their stories.

Funding for the arts provides a sense of place and belonging when other opportunities may not be available. The Regional Arts Grant Fund was able to assist the Studio Space Theatre Company in my electorate of Bass last year to facilitate its Studio Space Showcase, a celebration of exclusive arts events described as ,an exploration of dance, singing and scripted performance celebrating participants with a disability, building confidence and developing artistic practice.

Arts funding also increases employment and professional development and capacity-building opportunities for our world-class artists and performers, including celebrated local Indigenous artist Rodney Gardner. A small grant from the federal government has allowed Mr Gardner to build upon his series of portraits of Tasmanian Aboriginal elders, seniors and emerging leaders.

With over $700 million committed across the country in the current financial year, the Morrison government is proudly committed to supporting the arts.