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Speaker 1: Well, a little earlier this morning we spoke to the

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Speaker 1: Treasurer of the Northern Territory, Bill Yan, who confirmed that no,

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Speaker 1: the Aboriginal Art Gallery for Alice Springs would not be

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Speaker 1: going ahead after nine years back and forth. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line is a former labor MLA, long term,

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Speaker 1: long time Central Australian residents, Scott McConnell get a.

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Speaker 2: Scott, Yeah, good morning and good morning listeness.

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Speaker 1: Long time, no speak and Scott, I know that you

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Speaker 1: know you have known and been following, been pushing. I

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Speaker 1: guess in different at different times, in different ways when

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Speaker 1: it comes to the Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs.

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Speaker 1: What did you make when? What did you make of

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Speaker 1: the decision when the Treasurer said Nope, not going ahead.

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Speaker 2: Look, I commend the Treasurer of Billion on providing leadership

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Speaker 2: and killing off this project because the project had been

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Speaker 2: completely derailed. What we do need to do is still

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Speaker 2: do a project in Central Australia, but clearly that project

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Speaker 2: wasn't tenable. I think it's worth looking a little bit back.

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Speaker 2: I think that there's certainly the case for there to

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Speaker 2: be a national Indigenous Center in Australia, and I think

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs in central Australia would be a good place

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Speaker 2: to do that. I was working on a project like

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Speaker 2: that with others many years ago. I think I was

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Speaker 2: looking back through paperwork. I think maybe twenty thirteen, we

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Speaker 2: were working on a project. This project was derailed by

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Speaker 2: one person and he deserves all the credit. Michael Gunner.

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Speaker 2: Michael Gunner derailed this project. He derailed a museum at

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Speaker 2: Miley Point that was a plan of his. He had

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Speaker 2: a plan of a museum in the fore court of

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Speaker 2: Parliament House. I think it's called State Square yep. That

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Speaker 2: wasn't delivered and this project hasn't been delivered. And Michael

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Speaker 2: Gunner deserves the credit for completely derailing this project.

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Speaker 1: Scott In which in what way do you feel he

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Speaker 1: derailed it? Because, as you've rightly said, there we have

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Speaker 1: been talking about this for nine years. You know, there's

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Speaker 1: been different locations, there's been I guess no one's ever

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Speaker 1: been entirely happy. But how come you credit him with

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Speaker 1: the derailing.

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Speaker 2: Look, he's one hundred percent behind the derailing because what

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Speaker 2: the original idea was when it's a bit of a

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Speaker 2: history lesson, but when too was sold the then Giles

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Speaker 2: government Territory Insurance Office was owned by territory tax payers

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Speaker 2: and it was sold. Some of the revenue from that

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Speaker 2: sale was credited towards building a national Indigenous Art and

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Speaker 2: Culture Center in Alice Springs. Twenty million dollars was committed.

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Speaker 2: Then in the lead up to the election, the twenty

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Speaker 2: sixteen election, when Michael Gunner was the opposition leader, he

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Speaker 2: committed a further fifty million dollars towards the project, but

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Speaker 2: he was only interested in the art gallery. He wasn't

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Speaker 2: interested in anything else, just the art gallery. Then he

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Speaker 2: commissioned an expert panel. That expert panel made a recommendation

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Speaker 2: which he just simply ignored, and he proceeded with what

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Speaker 2: made this project untenable, which was locating it on anzac Oval.

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Speaker 2: So then we have other governments come in. We have

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Speaker 2: the CLP government come in to try and fix that

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Speaker 2: serious Gunner stuff up, and we have the federal member

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Speaker 2: trying to make this project more at tenable for the

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Speaker 2: community of our springs and have a greater support, and

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Speaker 2: they're not able to do that because this project was

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Speaker 2: derailed by Michael Gunner.

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Speaker 1: Goodness, mate, I mean, Scott, It's like it's a really

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Speaker 1: tough one, now, isn't it in the sense that you know,

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Speaker 1: people want that tourism in Central Australia and they want

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Speaker 1: to see I think a lot of people do want

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Speaker 1: to see an Aboriginal art center or an Aboriginal cultural

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Speaker 1: and art center in Central Australia. But we, you know,

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Speaker 1: we just don't seem to be able to get a

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Speaker 1: bloody project off the ground. But then in saying that,

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Speaker 1: they blow out astronomically wise, and you know, if you

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Speaker 1: can't deliver a project at the funding level that we receive,

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Speaker 1: we're never going to be able to do it properly.

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Speaker 2: Yes, well, I've been commenting about a ship lift recently,

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Speaker 2: which is a good example. But also I think that's

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Speaker 2: what's really important, is that we do need to remember

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Speaker 2: just to call our jets here for a second, and

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Speaker 2: remember we were talking about a piece of nationally significant

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Speaker 2: cultural infrastructure. This is a national project. It was to

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Speaker 2: represent all Aboriginal and Torrestrade Island, the people of Australia,

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Speaker 2: not Central Australia or even the Northern Territory of Australia.

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Speaker 2: And it was derailed by parochial politics, by you know,

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Speaker 2: the things happening in our springs and we never got

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Speaker 2: it to have that national focus. Now, what I think

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Speaker 2: we need to do is to just sort of remember

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Speaker 2: we have lost a project that was funded to the

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Speaker 2: value of two hundred million. It did need more money

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Speaker 2: to bring it to its full fruition, but we have

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Speaker 2: lost a significant project. Now, what we need to do

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Speaker 2: as a community in Central Australia and the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: has reflect on that and look for a road forward.

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Speaker 2: I'm really interested in that road forward and I still

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Speaker 2: think that Central Australia is a rightful pace for a

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Speaker 2: national storytelling of Indigenous contribution to our nation.

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Speaker 1: Scott, how do you reckon we make that happen? What

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Speaker 1: would it look like from your perspective, that would be

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Speaker 1: welcomed by the Alice Springs community and you know, the

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Speaker 1: broader Northern Territory. But you know, when we've chopped and

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Speaker 1: changed locations and we've you know, ultimately I guess I

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Speaker 1: don't know this project previous the previous project just became

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Speaker 1: a debacle. How do we stop that from happening again?

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Speaker 2: Look, we have to listen to the voices of community,

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Speaker 2: both here in Central Australia but also nationally so the

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Speaker 2: conversation about what this thing will look like as a

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Speaker 2: built element needs to be a national conversation, and then

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Speaker 2: of course there needs to be a local conversation about

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Speaker 2: where it's placed in on Alice Springs needs to remember

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Speaker 2: that we need to be respectful to the rest of

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Speaker 2: the nation and show that we have a collaboration here

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Speaker 2: on the ground to be the rightful place to tell

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Speaker 2: this national story. I want the credit Bill Yam, the Treasurer.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate what he's done. I know that he really

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Speaker 2: does care for his electorate and the community of Alice Springs.

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Speaker 2: He's been put in a difficult position. I also want

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Speaker 2: to thank Marion Scrimminjaw. Marion Scimminjaw has provided leadership in

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Speaker 2: this space and is really trying to put this project

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Speaker 2: on track. What we need to do is encourage all

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Speaker 2: our political leaders to work together, to work collaboratively and

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Speaker 2: try and bring a project together for Central Australia. This

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Speaker 2: could be the most important piece of cultural infrastructure in

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Speaker 2: the nation. We need to try and keep moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Scott McConnell, good to speak to you this morning. I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. No, thank you very much, you too,

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Speaker 1: thanks Scott,