Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak about an exciting initiative between Australia and Italy. Having had a longstanding and active involvement in the Australian-Italian community, I am very pleased to speak on the Italian Australian Film Festival. As the first Australian woman of Italian origin elected to the Senate and the first person of Italian origin elected to the Senate from New South Wales, I am particularly delighted to see activity between Australia and Italy in so many different areas. It is a vibrant relationship based especially on strong person-to-person ties. With first-, second- and third-generation Australians of Italian origin making up about 10 per cent of our population, it is a relationship which has manifested itself across a diversity of ventures and enterprises. It is a relationship, of course, that I know well and one which is dear to my heart. In Italy, Australia is seen as a wonderful destination, and we here in Australia enjoy so many things Italian. Indeed, many things Italian are now a feature of our daily lives.

This evening I would like to speak about one such significant event this year. On 3 June, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Italian Australian Film Festival gala dinner with the special guest being the incomparable film icon Sophia Loren. The event was held at the stunning Miramare Gardens in Terrey Hills in the northern beaches of Sydney. It was a great success. The Italian Australian Film Festival has been a showpiece of both Italian and Australian cultures. It is another example of the already strong connections between Italy and Australia.

In September 2006 the festival directors, Gabriella Matacchioni and John Bomben, travelled to the Venice Film Festival, at the invitation of Cinecitta, to present and launch Spettacolare 2007. The gala event, held at the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido, was attended by about 200 guests, including the then Australian Ambassador, Peter Woolcott; the Austrade Commissioner in Milan, Tim Gauci; Carlo Alberto Balestrazzi, the director of one of Italy’s oldest and biggest production houses, Tiatanus; and other notables in the film industry. As well as promoting Spettacolare, the occasion was used to showcase the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where the festival was originally to have been held.

For the film industry itself, the festival was an opportunity for significant networking between the Australian and overseas film industries and for sharing expertise and promoting the industry across wider markets. This outcome fits with the coalition government’s overall goal of supporting our industry through the arts portfolio and the recent measures announced in the 2007-08 budget. I would like to congratulate Mrs Matacchioni and Mr Bomben, the main organisers of the festival. Their personal commitment, financial investment and passion for this project—believed to be the first of its kind between the two countries—ensured that, despite the various hurdles, it was a great success.

As indicated, one of the main highlights of the festival was the gala dinner with Sophia Loren. I was honoured to have been present at this event along with a number of my federal and state parliamentary colleagues, who I am sure, like me, found this a very memorable evening. What made the event particularly special was the decision by the organisers to not only praise Ms Loren for an outstanding career but to also use the opportunity to introduce her to the inspirational six-year-old burns survivor Sophie Delezio. The event was used to raise awareness of burns injuries and to raise funds for the Day of Difference Foundation, which was established by Sophie’s parents to assist in promoting valuable research into paediatric burns. It was a particularly poignant moment when Ms Loren spoke to young Sophie and told her that she wanted to give her a very special gift which she wanted young Sophie to wear on her first date. Ms Loren then took off the beautiful earnings she was wearing and gave them to young Sophie. It was a magnificent and very generous gesture by Ms Loren.

After the success of the festival and the undeniable generosity and commitment of the organisers, I was disheartened to learn that those behind this event had received undeserved criticism from a member of the Queensland bureaucracy. I understand that Mr Michael Denton, who is the Chief Executive of Queensland Events and was then a member of the Maroochy Tourism Industry Advisory Board, criticised the festival organisers in an interview on ABC Radio in Queensland on 7 June 2007. I understand that Mr Denton made the comments in his capacity as Chief Executive of Queensland Events, a body administered directly by the Queensland Premier through the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet, which coincidentally was itself seeking to promote its ambitious plan for an annual film awards event for the Asia-Pacific region.

While the current Queensland government has a less than impressive record when it comes to its management of the public sector, the conduct of the premier’s department raises real concerns. I am advised that Mr Denton intimated in his interview, and on other occasions, that the Italian Australian Film Festival received significant amounts of public funding to assist in organising a film festival event on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I am informed by Mrs Matacchioni that the organisation did not receive funding from the Queensland government for the festival. Indeed, I also understand that the funding given by the federal government for the festival was reimbursed to the Commonwealth when the event regrettably had to be relocated to Sydney.

Mr Denton’s comments while speaking in his capacity as Chief Executive of Queensland Events have unnecessarily damaged the reputation of the festival and its organisers. Indeed, I understand that legal action has been undertaken by the festival organisers with regard to these comments. I am also very concerned that at no stage were the organisers of the festival afforded a right of reply by the ABC. Indeed, the ABC failed to even contact the organisers for any comments.

I take this opportunity to comment on the appalling behaviour of another component of the ABC, namely The Chaser. Andrew Hansen disrupted Ms Loren’s press conference in Sydney on 1 June 2007 by asking 10 very inappropriate questions of Ms Loren that were deliberately designed to embarrass her. At the gala dinner that I attended, Ms Loren expressed to me her absolute displeasure at the conduct of Mr Hansen. As usual, The Chaser simply do not care whom they offend and the effect that this may have. In this case, they had no regard for the potential embarrassment to the organisers and supporters of the Italian Australian Film Festival. Rest assured that I intend to raise this matter again in another forum.

I would now like to look at what is being proposed for Spettacolare in the future. The directors of the festival are currently in negotiations with major corporate sponsors and partners in both Australia and the European Union. They are also having discussions with various levels of government in both Italy and Australia to deliver the 2008 event. I am advised that the event should include a visit to Australia by Isabella Rossellini with a personal photographic exhibition, a retrospective of her father’s films, a concert performance and various other trade and cultural activities. It is anticipated that the event will take place in Sydney in early September 2008. The aim is to make Spettacolare an annual trade and cultural exchange between Australia and Italy in particular and then Europe and Asia. The hope of the organisers is that, within the next two to three years, Spettacolare will be able to tour to other major Australian capital cities and eventually return to its home base on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I conclude by congratulating the organisers and supporters for their efforts with Spettacolare 2007, and I wish them all the very best for a successful Spettacolare in Sydney in 2008.