Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Labor Party Senator Chris Evans, had consultations with me recently on an arts project in Western Australia. So I thought Mr Peter Garrett was very unfair to some of his colleagues. However, he was dead right about state Labor premiers. He mentioned that he was appalled at the announcements of the Prime Minister and state Labor premiers that they would see if they could get some support for a potential soccer World Cup. I thought it was most unfortunate and unfair to attack the Prime Minister in that way, but certainly some Labor premiers, particularly in New South Wales, have been laggardly in the arts. I think Peter Garrett is quite correct in that.

In relation to Mr Garrett’s position, the Labor Party at present is unique in the sense that Mr Beazley has decided not to appoint the arts spokesman to the shadow ministry. That is extraordinary. I can understand Mr Peter Garrett’s acute frustration that he is not a member of the shadow ministry.