Chamber of Culture and the Arts Talk –
14th November 2014
• Acknowledgement of Dignitaries
• Her Excellency the Honourable Kerry Sanderson AO Governor of Western Australia
• Hon John Day MLA, Minister for Planning; Culture and the Arts
• The Hon. Dr Michael (Mike) Nahan MLA, Treasurer; Minister for Energy; Citizenship and Multicultural Interests
• The Hon. Benjamin (Ben) Wyatt MLA, Shadow Treasurer; Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; Native Title; Kimberley; Pilbara; Cost of Living
• The Hon. Michelle Roberts MLA, Shadow Minister for Culture and the Arts
• Hon. Chief Justice Wayne Martin AC, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Western Australia
• Malcolm McCusker AC CVO QC and Tonya McCusker
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• I am very grateful for the honour you have
given me tonight.
• But I do need to say that although this has
been given to me, I see it as
acknowledgement of the vision of some our
earlier Board members who first saw the
opportunity to focus more on the arts as well
as our Board members of today who continue
to share that vision.
• And it is a recognition of the people in the
grants team at Lotterywest who do all the hard
work in managing the grant making processes
and work in partnership with the arts
community throughout the state.
• So to the extent some of this recognition is a
personal one, it feels somehow a bit like
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cheating to be given this award for something
that I have love doing as much as I have loved
my work with Lotterywest over the past 26
years.
• That for me has been as much in running the
‘lotto’ business so we can support the
community in the broadest sense of the word
including of course the arts
• Tonight as I said is really about Lotterywest’s
connection with the arts and cultural life of our
state but in response to Henry’s invitation that
I ‘say a few words’ on accepting this honour I
hope you will forgive me if I give quite a
personal reflection of my experiences over the
past 26 years.
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• And one further disclaimer - in talking about
Lotterywest’s role in supporting the arts I
acknowledge that is comparatively a small
contribution compared with that of
Government through it major investment in the
arts through many programs as well as capital
infrastructure like the State Theatre amongst
many others, and the recent commitment to
fund what I am sure will be an absolutely
fantastic new state museum.
• Now a brief history lesson
• As many of you know but some may not,
Lotterywest’s connection with the Arts began
in 1982 when the late Bob Pike, MLA thought
up the very good idea of introducing scratchies
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as a new Lotteries Commission product as a
way of raising money for the arts and also for
sports.
• Until that time the Lotteries Commission’s Act
was very specific that is was really only
traditional charities and hospitals which could
receive Lotterywest funds.
• The amendment to the Act which gave the
Lotteries Commission the authority to sell
scratchies also specified that a fixed amount of
the scratchie sales [it was set at $3M] should
be given to the Arts Lottery Account and to the
Sports Lottery Account.
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• The fixed amount was changed when the
current Act was being drafted in 1990 to a
formula linked directly to overall sales not just
to scratchies.
• Since 1990 2% of sales has gone to the Arts
Lottery account where it is used by the
Minister through DCA to fund the 47 arts
funded agencies – last year that was over
$14M
• The next phase of the development of our
relationship with the arts became possible as a
result of that same new Act which defined
what we could give to far more broadly.
• It meant that we could make grants towards
any purpose which is ‘benevolent or charitable’
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so for the first time the arts became eligible for
direct support.
• The Board of that time in the early 1990s
which included the late Bill Warnock who I am
sure many of you here tonight recall, began to
think about how it could interpret this new and
broader power they had been given for grant
making and began to explore possibilities of
making grants directly to support the Arts.
• Bill, as those who knew him was passionate
about everything – actually Bill was passionate
about life in general - that was going to
improve our community but in particular about
the Arts which I think he loved most of all.
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• So led by the vision of people like Bill and the
then Chairman of our Board Wendy Silver
which was shared by the other Board
members, that was the era when we first
starting funding conservation projects, heritage
and medical research and many other new
projects like Lotteries Houses but the story of
those initiatives is one for another occasion.
• So this is when I came in as the still relatively
new role as a grants consultant.
• That Board in the early 90s and all others
since have understood that building ‘social
capital’ is as important as helping those in
need.
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• They understood the place of the arts in civil
society and its part in contributing to the
quality of life for everyone as well as making a
significant contribution the economy if
justification on economic grounds needed to
be made.
• The principle that we have remained
committed to since then that building social
capital including support for the arts is not just
a nice to have add on when all else is funded
but is fundamental to Lotterywest’s role in the
community was established in that era.
• My first personal venture into an arts funding
program was the small community arts
program which we started in 1990 [Wendy
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Wise] to help small, local community groups
get grants for mostly capital items like pottery
kilns, risers for choirs, embroidery equipment,
musical instruments, costumes for theatre
groups, painting materials – the list has been
endless
• We still give grants like this today because we
believe that these kind of local arts and
cultural groups including in to Aboriginal arts
organisations are the glue that holds our
society together
• The next development at that time was what we
then called the Gordon Reid Foundation for
Access to the Performing Arts – that program
was designed to help make the arts accessible
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to people who were geographically isolated or
financially disadvantaged and aimed to build
audience for the arts.
• Although not known by the original name, the
philosophy of making the arts accessible to all
has been an enduring one for us.
• The next really big thing came in 1992 when the
Act was amended,
• That amendment specifically added the screen
industry and the Festival of Perth as named
beneficiaries.
• I had no part in that decision – it was taken by
the Minister Pam Beggs, then the Minister for
Racing and Gaming and Tourism who was
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very interested in the potential benefit of a
strong film industry for WA and Minister Kay
Hallahan then the Minister for the Arts who
was being fiercely lobbied by the Perth
Festival Director, David Blenkinsop for funds
for the festival which was really struggling on a
shoe string back then.
• On the advice of the board that unclaimed
prize money could be used for funding instead
of being held for as many years as the Act
then required led to that amendment.
• I well recall my reaction as a new CEO, still
very wet behind the ears when I was told by
the Minister’s office that I would have to
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administer this new section of the Act about
which I knew nothing at the time.
• I told the Minister’s advisor that it would be a
‘bloody nightmare’ – at least that’s how I recall
I indelicately put it.
• But time has proved me convincingly very
wrong. It has not been a nightmare. It has
been a dream which has been one of the
highlights of my career – to be involved in
being part of building the world class screen
industry we now have in this state
• And in the same way to have been part of
helping the Festival to become the truly
fantastic wonderful annual event during which
Perth really comes alive each summer
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following now the hugely successful
Fringeworld which we also fund.
• I can’t tell you the ridiculous sense of
triumph/pride I felt when the Premier
announced when we thought all was lost that
the Giants would be coming to Perth next year
as the centrepiece of the Festival and in the
year of the Centenary of Anzac – how good is
that?
• So over the years Lotterywest has continued
quietly, based on our vision of building a better
WA together, been expanding our role in
supporting the arts and cultural life of our
community.
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• It has included supporting all kinds of
community festivals – the biggest like Fringe
World as I mentioned to the smallest local
regional or ethnic event
• We have given grants to make sure WASO
would not lose their wonderful voluntary choir
when its sponsorship ran out
• We’ve supported opera in the park and
symphony in the city so everyone can enjoy
those events which are also part of our Perth
Summer.
• And we’ve supported community access
programs by the Ballet and Black Swan – how
moving was it to see blind people see
‘Sleeping Beauty’ or people with terminal
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illness experience the ballet for the first time,
or representatives of refugee groups, foster
parents and their children at Peter Pan and to
see the faces of people who have never been
to a live theatre performance before.
• I could go on all night with many more
examples of specific projects we have
supported over the years– suffice to say that
last year, the total grants amounted to $25m
for culture and the arts in the broadest
definition of what that means – including $1M
for various events and projects associated with
the Anzac Centenary
• But one of the things which Lotterywest has
supported of which I am particularly proud is
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the building of the capacity of the whole arts
sector in this state
• In recent years it became obvious that some
kind of forum was needed which would bring
the sector together to find shared approaches
to the common challenges you were and are
facing and to work together in partnership with
government and with other key supporters of
the arts to do that.
• It would be remiss of me at this point not to
acknowledge the part that the corporate sector
and many generous philanthropists have
played in recent years in supporting the arts –
this has been a true example of community,
business and government working together.
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• Our identification of the need for a forum for
the arts resulted in the pretty significant grants
we have made in recent years to help with the
establishment of this Chamber and to fund
operating costs for the immediate future.
• It is very gratifying to see what the members of
the Board achieved as a voluntary board
before Henry was appointed and what has
been achieved since that time.
• When I look back I can see just how far the
arts in WA have come in the past 20 years but
there is clearly still a way to go as the most
recent piece of work of the Chamber outlines
in your budget submission.
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• That documents the still very real challenges
facing the sector in creating amongst other
goals the kind of city which would lift Perth
further up the list of liveable cities – I note we
fall below Adelaide even which surely is not
acceptable?!.
• In conclusion I want to say a heartfelt personal
thank you to all the arts organisations which
have given me so much personal pleasure
over the years.
• I have no personal artistic skills at all – I can’t
draw or paint.
• I can’t sing – I was dropped aged 12 from the
school choir after one session when the music
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teacher told me I could not sing in tune and
never recovered from the humiliation .
• I can’t dance despite one disastrous term of
classical ballet when it became clear that my
stumpy legs were never going to do a grand
jete.
• I can’t play a musical instrument of any kind
• But I like to think I have made an art form of
appreciation of the arts
• I have transported regularly to other worlds by
our WASO, our WAB, and our WA Opera.
• I have been made to think and made to laugh
by the productions of all our theatre
companies. Page 20 of 22
• And by the many experiences brought to us by
the Festival and Fringeworld.
• I have wondered through our art gallery and
museum in admiration for the visual arts
• I could go on but I won’t – forgive me if I have
not mentioned your company or art form.
• I love all forms of the arts but there is not
enough time for me to talk about them tonight
• So all I can do for now is to just express my
gratitude for all I have experienced over the
years and to say that if I done anything to help
the arts sector of our state, then I have been
more than amply compensated by what it has
given Alan and me and in the personal Page 21 of 22
friendships we have come to enjoy with so
many of you.
• In finishing this speech, if there is one thing I
want to leave you with tonight it is to remind
you to look at what you have achieved.
• I know it is tough for anyone who chooses to
work in this sector but I know you will continue
to do what you have always done – to look
past limitations and see what is possible.
• And always remember that what you do is vital
work which feeds the human spirit and
strengthens our community.
• So again thank you for the privilege of letting
me play some small part in the vital work all of
you do to enrich our community
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