Art at Anzac oval: No new rugby fields, says Lambley

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p1845lambleyrobynLETTER TO THE EDITOR
 
Sir – I told the Minister for Culture, Lauren Moss, in Parliament today that Alice Springs people would not accept using Anzac Oval as the site for the National Indigenous Art Gallery unless the Government provided full details of their plan for an alternative venue for rugby union and rugby league.
 
I asked the minister to provide details of where the new venue would be, details on grandstands, lighting, car parking and how much funding the new venue would be allocated.
 
She responded that she would not provide this information and she would not plan for an alternative sporting venue to Anzac Oval.
 
The Government cannot seriously ask the people of Alice Springs to give up a much loved and highly utilized sporting and social venue, not knowing if the Government will provide an alternative venue.
 
The likely cost of providing an alternative sporting venue to Anzac Oval with twin rugby fields would be abut $20m. Obviously the Government has no intention of committing this additional amount of funding.
 
The Government is not considering the real concerns Alice Springs people have about losing Anzac Oval, the most obvious being, where will ruby league and rugby union be played?
 
Robyn Lambley
Independent Member for Araluen
 
 
UPDATE 4:34pm
 
Hansard reports the reply to Ms Lambley from Ms Moss as follows:
 
We are also consulting on the $6.2m of sporting infrastructure in Alice Springs because we believe in genuinely involving the community and making sure we are hearing their voices. We are working with the Alice Springs Town Council updating their sports plan. We have been working with Mayor, Damien Ryan, on making sure that community voice is part of that.
 
The assumption that the community will not be engaged unless we predetermine the outcome of this consultation is entirely wrong. The premise of the question is entirely wrong. We will continue to go through this community consultation process in a genuine manner.
 
I encourage you to have your say. I know you have been speaking in media putting forward your ideas for the location of the art gallery. I thank you for that. I thank those members of the community who have and continue to have their say through that process.
 
We will put in the work that is needed once the decision is made on the location. I make the point that there are many other things that need to be worked through for the National Indigenous Art Gallery in Alice Springs. We have a curation plan we have to work on. We need to ensure that this is a building and a collection that speaks to the landscape, the stories and significant art movements, not only in Central Australia but across the nation.
 
We have much work to do and I thank the steering committee for the work it has done. I pay our respects to the work it has done and to those members in Central Australia and across the country who continue to engage genuinely in this process. We will not be premeditating the outcome of that. It might be what the former government is used to doing …
 
 
 

7 COMMENTS

  1. Why isn’t the site at the bottom of the range used, off Bloomfield Street? Alternately, the triangle of land at the bottom of Bloomfield between the flats and the roundabout?
    Surely these are better than destroying a field that the former government built and has been used for Rugby League since the 1960s.

  2. Corner of Parsons Street and the highway: The rail yards are an empty, ugly space, as close to the CBD as Anzac.

  3. Leave ANZAC Oval alone. It has historical as well as community value and we are not prepared to lose our oval.
    Build the art gallery on another site. Also, you need to consult the Indigenous people, they don’t want the site on ANZAC oval. It is an Indigenous art gallery, after all.

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