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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, a little earlier this morning we spoke to the
Treasurer of the Northern Territory, Bill Yan, who confirmed that no,
the Aboriginal Art Gallery for Alice Springs would not be
going ahead after nine years back and forth. Now joining
me on the line is a former labor MLA, long term,
long time Central Australian residents, Scott McConnell get a.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Scott, Yeah, good morning and good morning listeness.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Long time, no speak and Scott, I know that you
know you have known and been following, been pushing. I
guess in different at different times, in different ways when
it comes to the Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs.
What did you make when? What did you make of
the decision when the Treasurer said Nope, not going ahead.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Look, I commend the Treasurer of Billion on providing leadership
and killing off this project because the project had been
completely derailed. What we do need to do is still
do a project in Central Australia, but clearly that project
wasn't tenable. I think it's worth looking a little bit back.

(01:08):
I think that there's certainly the case for there to
be a national Indigenous Center in Australia, and I think
Alice Springs in central Australia would be a good place
to do that. I was working on a project like
that with others many years ago. I think I was
looking back through paperwork. I think maybe twenty thirteen, we
were working on a project. This project was derailed by

(01:28):
one person and he deserves all the credit. Michael Gunner.
Michael Gunner derailed this project. He derailed a museum at
Miley Point that was a plan of his. He had
a plan of a museum in the fore court of
Parliament House. I think it's called State Square yep. That
wasn't delivered and this project hasn't been delivered. And Michael
Gunner deserves the credit for completely derailing this project.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Scott In which in what way do you feel he
derailed it? Because, as you've rightly said, there we have
been talking about this for nine years. You know, there's
been different locations, there's been I guess no one's ever
been entirely happy. But how come you credit him with
the derailing.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Look, he's one hundred percent behind the derailing because what
the original idea was when it's a bit of a
history lesson, but when too was sold the then Giles
government Territory Insurance Office was owned by territory tax payers
and it was sold. Some of the revenue from that
sale was credited towards building a national Indigenous Art and

(02:36):
Culture Center in Alice Springs. Twenty million dollars was committed.
Then in the lead up to the election, the twenty
sixteen election, when Michael Gunner was the opposition leader, he
committed a further fifty million dollars towards the project, but
he was only interested in the art gallery. He wasn't
interested in anything else, just the art gallery. Then he

(02:56):
commissioned an expert panel. That expert panel made a recommendation
which he just simply ignored, and he proceeded with what
made this project untenable, which was locating it on anzac Oval.
So then we have other governments come in. We have
the CLP government come in to try and fix that

(03:16):
serious Gunner stuff up, and we have the federal member
trying to make this project more at tenable for the
community of our springs and have a greater support, and
they're not able to do that because this project was
derailed by Michael Gunner.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Goodness, mate, I mean, Scott, It's like it's a really
tough one, now, isn't it in the sense that you know,
people want that tourism in Central Australia and they want
to see I think a lot of people do want
to see an Aboriginal art center or an Aboriginal cultural
and art center in Central Australia. But we, you know,
we just don't seem to be able to get a

(03:53):
bloody project off the ground. But then in saying that,
they blow out astronomically wise, and you know, if you
can't deliver a project at the funding level that we receive,
we're never going to be able to do it properly.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yes, well, I've been commenting about a ship lift recently,
which is a good example. But also I think that's
what's really important, is that we do need to remember
just to call our jets here for a second, and
remember we were talking about a piece of nationally significant
cultural infrastructure. This is a national project. It was to
represent all Aboriginal and Torrestrade Island, the people of Australia,

(04:32):
not Central Australia or even the Northern Territory of Australia.
And it was derailed by parochial politics, by you know,
the things happening in our springs and we never got
it to have that national focus. Now, what I think
we need to do is to just sort of remember
we have lost a project that was funded to the

(04:53):
value of two hundred million. It did need more money
to bring it to its full fruition, but we have
lost a significant project. Now, what we need to do
as a community in Central Australia and the Northern Territory
has reflect on that and look for a road forward.
I'm really interested in that road forward and I still
think that Central Australia is a rightful pace for a

(05:15):
national storytelling of Indigenous contribution to our nation.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Scott, how do you reckon we make that happen? What
would it look like from your perspective, that would be
welcomed by the Alice Springs community and you know, the
broader Northern Territory. But you know, when we've chopped and
changed locations and we've you know, ultimately I guess I
don't know this project previous the previous project just became

(05:41):
a debacle. How do we stop that from happening again?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Look, we have to listen to the voices of community,
both here in Central Australia but also nationally so the
conversation about what this thing will look like as a
built element needs to be a national conversation, and then
of course there needs to be a local conversation about
where it's placed in on Alice Springs needs to remember
that we need to be respectful to the rest of
the nation and show that we have a collaboration here

(06:07):
on the ground to be the rightful place to tell
this national story. I want the credit Bill Yam, the Treasurer.
I appreciate what he's done. I know that he really
does care for his electorate and the community of Alice Springs.
He's been put in a difficult position. I also want
to thank Marion Scrimminjaw. Marion Scimminjaw has provided leadership in

(06:29):
this space and is really trying to put this project
on track. What we need to do is encourage all
our political leaders to work together, to work collaboratively and
try and bring a project together for Central Australia. This
could be the most important piece of cultural infrastructure in
the nation. We need to try and keep moving forward.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Scott McConnell, good to speak to you this morning. I
really appreciate your time. No, thank you very much, you too,
thanks Scott,
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