“The two-and-a-half million people who call western Sydney home have for too long had to survive on scraps,” opposition spokesperson for arts,music and the nighttime economy John Graham will say in a speech,a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald.
At a big ideas event hosted by the Committee of Sydney at the University of Technology Sydney,opposition leader Chris Minns will commit Labor to a new focus on screen,music,fashion,art,architecture,design and technology.
“We will shift the focus away from a traditional arts policy towards the new and exciting opportunities emerging in the cultural and creative sectors,” he says. “We want to go beyond just funding the big cultural institutions in the city’s east.”
Their intervention three months before the March election opens a potentially new election battleground between the main parties around questions of cultural investment and equity.
“The Riverside Theatres is incomplete,theRoxy Theatre lies dormant and theParramatta Female Factory remains an unpolished jewel of the state’s heritage and history,” Graham will say.
“Great institutions like the Casula Powerhouse are starved of funds and have to lay off staff. And what of the new Western Sydney airport at Bradfield? Where are the plans for theatres,live music halls,cinemas and libraries in this new 24-hour precinct?