Gallery: Gunner sticks with ANZAC Oval

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2551 Michael Gunner OKBy ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Chief Minister Michael Gunner this morning has made it clear again that he is not contemplating any location for the National Indigenous Art Gallery other than ANZC Oval.
 
Are you funding the art gallery only if it takes place on ANZAC Oval?
 
This was the question the Alice Springs News Online put to Mr Gunner at the Developing Northern Australian convention in Alice Springs.
 
“The money is for a gallery in Alice Springs. Our preferred location is ANZAC Oval and that’s the conversation we are still having,” Mr Gunner replied.
 
NEWS: Is the condition for it to go ahead that it is built on ANZAC Oval or can it be somewhere else?
 
GUNNER: Every consultation we have done shows the CBD location is the preferred location, and that’s the only location that offers a sense of place and has the space to be able to do it.
 
NEWS: Is that the only place where you would fund it?
 
GUNNER: That’s where all the consultation shows is the best place for  it.
 
This negates what the government’s steering committee has recommended – the Desert Park.
 
And it is even in conflict with Mr Gunner’s previous statement in the Legislative Assembly: “We have gone through two consultation processes—one through the steering committee which put up two sites that were deemed suitable or appropriate for this development—one was outside the CBD proper, out at the Desert Park, and one was in the CBD and that is at the bottom of Anzac Hill.”
 
This itself was a misrepresentation of the steering committee’s process, as reported here.
 
Mr Gunner made no mention of the current public consultations conducted by MLA for Braitling Dale Wakefield, a process which isn’t helping the ongoing confusion in this project.
 
 
 

14 COMMENTS

  1. The saga of the “gallery” could be played on the Totem theater’s stage in three acts: Drama, farce, and tragedy.
    • Drama – any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results.
    • Farce – comedy in which everything is absolutely absurd. This usually involves some kind of deception or miscommunication.
    Farces are popular because they develop in a way that seems more or less realistic, despite the fact that the results are highly improbable.
    That is, the characters make decisions that seem to make some sense given the circumstances, but at every turn things get more and more ridiculous
    • Tragedy traditionally portrays the protagonist’s fall from high authority or renown to ruin, often predetermined by fate or driven by a tragic flaw. I am waiting for the curtain’s fall.

  2. Why isn’t the Gunner Government listening to the people of Alice Springs? We don’t want it at Anzac Oval. Please listen to the expert advice and co-locate with the Desert Park.

  3. “Every consultation we have done shows the CBD location is the preferred location, and that’s the only location that offers a sense of place and has the space to be able to do it.”
    That comment is simply not true.

  4. Unfortunately the suspicion that Dale Wakefield’s latest consultation process is also flawed was confirmed when I stopped to chat at her tent and was subjected to a marketing exercise by “Mark” (public servant) for the Anzac Oval site.
    Dale’s comment in today’s Advocate that two out of three people she speaks to are in favour of Anzac site shows an extremely poor understanding of what a valid consultation process looks like, given her government’s public statements insisting on Anzac site.
    Not many against this site would waste their time talking to her.
    Dale also completely destroyed her own argument about this being good for CBD when she talked about people “going for coffee in the gallery” and argued locals would go there “once a week”.
    This is not Melbourne or Sydney. The locals will never be the ones that make this viable.
    We need to attract overseas and interstate visitors looking for a unique experience in a unique setting reflecting and respecting Aboriginal traditions of proper place.

  5. Why even have a consultation process, Mr Gunner, if your just gonna put the gallery where you want it!! You could have saved a lot of money on this so called consultation process and just said that’s where YOU want it to go in the first place!
    You won’t be getting my vote in the next election!

  6. GUNNER: Every consultation we have done shows the CBD location is the preferred location, and that’s the only location that offers a sense of place and has the space to be able to do it.
    Why not proving it to us and shut our mouths by have a petition signed, names and address, instead of spending money and time with a cup of coffee? It will be easy then to see once for all where the majority lies.

  7. The majority (95%) of people I’ve spoken to are all for the Anzac site, yet all I read is negative press. I think its a small yet vocal group against it.
    Having the gallery out of town would be a huge loss to the town as a whole, particularly the CBD and business community. It would be great to see some support for such a positive project for our community.

  8. It will interesting to see the results of the Advocate survey this week!
    All the surveys so far seem to overwhelmingly oppose the Anzac site.
    I to spoke to Dale and took the so called survey card from her.
    I did not read the card at the time but I have now and it’s a joke!
    It only asks do you support the gallery, not the real question, where should it be located!
    They have lost my vote!

  9. Chief Minister Michael Gunner and his government appear to be adopting approach of Dr Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
    — Dr Joseph Goebbels: On the “Big Lie”

  10. How dare Mr Gunner say that the majority are in favour of the Anzac site when it isn’t the case.
    If he wishes to avoid a mass protest he will rethink the location.
    Just build the gallery on another site and let’s move on. Leave our oval alone and listen to our Indigenous people who want it south of The Gap.

  11. YD. The ground the old high school sits on is not your oval. The gallery is being built on that land. There is no building on the oval.
    I am so concerned for the logic of the protesting few. The oval is not mine or yours.
    It is council public property. For everyone.
    The school is going and a new building being built. The gallery. Please think about your protest before yell to loudly. The school grounds are not the oval.

  12. No means no. Or give give us back all the money all the rate payers have put into this site. I have seen over many years the projects that have been built in the town using rate payments, then torn down but I don’t see it back in my pocket.

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