. AUST1{ AI A
PRIME MINISTER
FOR MED IA SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 1982
MARIONETTETHEATRE, SYDNEY
I am very happy to be here with Tamie in support of this
appeal to raise as I understand about $ 700,000 for the
renovation of an old building next door the major part of which
is something considerably over 100 years old. Turning what
used to be a very bare and rudimentary sailors' home when it
was first constructed into a marionette theatre which will
serve this part of Sydney and Australia for a very long, long
while ) is I think an imaginative project indeed.
I have had a quick look over the old building and there i~ s a
photograph of it, a large one and an old one in the foyer
which showed the simplicity of the design and the proportions
which could hardly be bettered. I think one of the quite
remarkable changes that has occurred over Australia over the
last ten maybe fifteen years at the most, is an enormous
change of attitude to parts of Australia's early history.
We want to preserve, we want to conserve and that is evident
in many different ways in the views we have towards old buildings
which are very much part of our past. Whnether it is in relation
to part of the Rocks area in Sydney or parts of Melbourne or
parts of the Australian countryside that we want to get despoiled,
the attitude of Australians now is one in which we all realise
very greatly that there is much in a relatively brief past of
something less than a couple of hundred years. There is much
in that that we want to keep, that we want to conserve and that
we want to improve so that people in the future can enjoy it.
Conservation by itself is just one thing. I t has not necessarily
got a great deal of point to it, unless conservation leads to
something that people can enjoy, experience and in many cases
use to a very useful purpose. Here we are going to have the
renovation and internally pulling around a bit, an old building
that is something to conserve, but something that is going
to provide a very great deal of enjoyment and a permanent for
the Marionette for as long as time may last. I think the
putting together of these two objectives is very, very
worthwhile. T am sorry that we are only being given two very brief glimpses
of what can happen. I can think of all sorts of possibilities.
I think if there was a little time given, we really could have
had a show put on which could have been relevant and pertinent
and all sorts of things.. Whether it was Carlton winning at the
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football or Parliament last week or Parramatta maybe winning
today, the possibilities would seem to be endless. It is
an art form which Australians have devoted a great deal of time
a great deal of attention and care and have shown a great deal
of skill not only no doubt because they themselves get a good
deal of satisfaction from the profession, but because they give
a very great deal of pleasure to a very large number of
Australians and it is important that all of this be encouraged.
It would be very easy for people to just sit back and say there
are a couple of governments, there is local government and
there are State governments and Federal governments and one
of them can do it. That also is an attitude which I sometimes
think has been too evident. Certainly governments have a role.
All governments now support the arts and different art forms
very substantially. But if the artistic world had to rely
on governments alone for the support of art, I think that in
itself can tend to be stultifying and narrowing.
In some countries overseas where the support of the artistic
world and artistic endeavour is entirely in the hands of government.
If you don't perform the way those governments want in the
proper revolutionary manner, then your work is condemned. One
of the garantors of freedom of artistic expression comes from
the fact that art, literature can be sponsored and supported
from a variety of sources, from governments, from the private
sector, from state governments, the Commonwealth and at times
also from local government. The fact that the arts are supported
in Australia in a variety of sources I think is something much
to be commended. It is one of the guarantors of freedom of
artistic expression and that obviously is enormously important
in a country like Australia.
If Australia has been a little behind over the years in the
past in terms of public support for the arts, compared with
some European countries I think maybe it was, not now. I think
still it might be a little behind some other countries in
terms of public and corporate support for the arts in its
different forms. I am delighted that over the last several
years there are many people in the private enterprise world
who are coming to realise to a greater and greater extent
that they also have a role to play in relation to this and
while the role can be an altruistic one, I think that there
is also a self-purpose served and a very good self purpose
served in terms of the wider public reputation of the
corporation that support this kind of activity.
I have very much that the appeal for funds is going to be
thoroughly successful and I have got no doubt that if it is
over-subscribed the funds will still be very well spent. But
the purpose is a very worthwhile one and I am delighted and
Tamie is delighted to have been asked here this afternoon to
lend what support we personally can to this interesting and
important endeavour. I would like to wish those concerned,
Sir Charles Moses and everyone else all good fortune in what
is being attempted because I think it is something of real
value and I am sure it is going to not only preserve an important
old building, but it is going to give a very great deal of
pleasure to tens upon thousands of people and many of them
young Australians down through the years. The best of luck
and may the money roll in.