Tarneit electorate
Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (14:42): (6397) My question is for the Minister for Creative Industries. In this year’s budget $500 000 has been allocated to help start planning for a future community and performing arts centre in Tarneit. When it comes to things like creative arts there is a perception that is not entirely fair that the arts are the province of inner-city communities and that out in the west in outer suburban communities like mine these kinds of things just are not important. Well, I totally disagree with this. If you go out into Melbourne’s outer suburbs, you will find thousands of people who enjoy and love the arts. Their children might take part in dance performances, they might be involved in theatre groups and they might actually be putting on a play with the local school. There is so much opportunity to enjoy the arts, and people living in my community deserve just as much access to the arts as anywhere else in Melbourne, which is why planning and building a performing arts centre in Tarneit is something my community really wants to see. So my question to the minister is this: what benefits will this performing arts centre have for residents in Tarneit and the wider Wyndham community?