Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I recently received a petition signed by more than 2,000 Central Coast residents calling on the federal coalition government to honour a Labor Party commitment to fund a Central Coast performing arts centre at Gosford. This is because there was a significant implication in all the material leading up to the election that they were indeed going to commit to this project. As we have learned, there are the words that we hear from the opposition, and then there is the truth—and sometimes there is an enormous distance between those two things.

Before the 2013 federal election I announced a fully costed promise by the Labor government of $15 million for a performing arts centre for Gosford—a major centre for the whole of the Central Coast, where indeed we have no town hall and no major gathering spot for our community. Since that time, despite the implication that they were going to provide funding, there has been a stony silence from the Liberals. What is the member for Robertson actually doing? What is she doing about this issue? Silence is all we hear. Where is the state Liberal member for Gosford on this issue? Why the silence? They position themselves as champions of the community, they make fluffy comments about loving music, but when it comes to the crunch there is a long distance between those words and delivery.

Under Labor, the commitment for this centre, along with $55 million for health, was a massive win for our community, and I am proud to say that Labor was prepared to deliver yet again for the Central Coast. We are the party that understands infrastructure. We understand what it means to build communities. We believe fundamentally in education, in science, in the arts and culture. Unfortunately, the coalition government has failed Coasties yet again with its prolonged silence on the funding and development of this iconic concert hall, which would transform the waterfront and bring incredibly increased business to our area and, through that, jobs for our young population. We need infrastructure. We need more, not less. But that is exactly what we have been getting since the election of this shameful government.

The performing arts centre would become a centrepiece for the Gosford waterfront, helping revitalise the whole area. Just to recap what we were set to receive if Labor had been elected: a performing arts centre including a multipurpose auditorium seating up to 1,000 people, a studio with retractable seating for 200 people and a foyer space suitable for exhibitions, individual teaching spaces, ensemble rehearsal rooms, a 150-seat performance and teaching centre, and storage and library facilities—and this integrated with our local conservatory of music as a wonderful place for the development of young talent. I also want to put on the record that the Central Coast is rapidly becoming the country music capital of Australia, with so many industry participants living on the coast, performing on the coast and growing talent on the coast.

People on the Central Coast deserve the same top-class facilities as Sydneysiders, and this petition sends a clear message to the member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, and other Central Coast Liberals that our community is demanding action. This project not only would give a home to the Central Coast Symphony Orchestra but also would be a shot in the arm for our local businesses and a huge boost for construction jobs. Of course, Australians everywhere view with complete dismay the savage cuts to health, education and welfare support announced by Mr Abbott in the 2014 budget, and Australians understand the dire consequences these changes will have for our most vulnerable citizens: the young, the elderly, the disadvantaged and Indigenous Australians.

The lack of action on the Central Coast performing arts centre is reflective of the massive cuts in arts funding across the board since this government came into power. The Australia Council lost $28.2 million and Screen Australia lost $30 million, not to mention the incalculable loss to our community with Fairfax Media reporting that the ABC and SBS are facing swingeing cuts of $250 million over five years in the midyear budget update. When Mark Dreyfus visited the coast earlier this year we were lucky to meet with a large contingent of local artists. The group pointed out to the shadow minister for the arts that their sector is one of the largest employers in the country. Cultural industries directly employ over half a million Australians and indirectly employ a further 3.7 million. But the Liberals, in their silence, refuse to respond to the challenge of providing infrastructure to grow the industry. (Time expired)