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It's great to have this opportunity to share with friends and colleagues,
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and most importantly, an Adelaide Festival of Ideas, audience,
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a few things that have been on my mind. I'd like, of course, to absorb,
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observe an important cultural protocol as, as yeah.
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Doreen and acknowledged the garner people as the traditional owners of the
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country. I'd also,
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I'm very proud to acknowledge the late Jim Bettison and Helen James for always
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backing the Adelaide festival of ideas from its inception.
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Thanks to Simone vinyl and Simone's fellow foundation trustees, Dorian Miller,
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and Jeff Purdy F and of course,
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Amanda Duffy from Adelaide film festival and perpetual trustees who administer
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the gym medicine and Helen James foundation award.
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I knew Jim and Helen and valued their support for some of the causes about
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which we shared a passion in essence, the arts and ideas,
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the value of learning and the power of human potential to both imagine,
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and then to realize a change in our lives.
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And so it was especially humbling for me when I was invited to be the inaugural
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recipient of the award established by the foundation in their name.
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It's also a particular through to know that I now find myself in the company of
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two incredible fellow recipients of this award, Meryl Tankard. Hi, Meryl,
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love your work. And Tim Jarvis, each of us are incredibly different,
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incredibly different in terms of our chosen paths.
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But I think this speaks so positively of the ambit of the
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Jim Bettison and Helen James foundation.
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Now I've only around 20 minutes in which to share with you a few of the things
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percolating at presence. So indulge me the pace and the brevity of detail.
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This is after all a festival of ideas and not a blueprints.
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So to maximise the gift of this opportunity,
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I'll speak really fast joke, joke. Yeah,
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I've headlined this address thinking Adelaide and I did so for a deliberate
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reason on Friday evening, my esteem, amigo Phillip Adams,
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and delivered the 2016 AFOI oration about
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magicians politics and various forms of Huff and puff. Yeah. Yesterday,
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our other IFOA national living treasure,
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the other truly great elder of ideas in this 2016 Festival,
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Barry Owen Jones talked about the need for a new political force in Australia,
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both of their chosen themes and topics really resonated powerfully with me.
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And I imagine with many of you here this morning,
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in a sense what's driven my various efforts in culture here in Adelaide over 30
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years has been a deep desire to embed in our public culture,
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the valuing of ideas,
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and thinking as an active and dynamic part of a journey to a more equitable and
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sustainable society that has been driven and inspired by my experience as a
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teenager during the Dunstan era of a South Australia,
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that valued intelligence and egalitarian ism that valued and invested
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in the arts and culture,
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and that believed in the 19th century founding principles of the province of
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South Australia, the paradise of descent,
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where diversity was a strength and where to be truly Frank as a young man coming
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to terms with my own sexuality,
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where I wouldn't be thrown into jail for being gay.
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So you might well be wondering, what does this have to do with anything? Well,
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back in 2010 11,
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while I was deputy chief executive in the premiers department,
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I'd convinced them premier Mike Gran who was also a minister for the arts to let
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me set up for South Australia, a digital portal under the name,
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thinking Adelaide on behalf of the South Australian government,
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we trademarked the name, secured the web domains of all variants of the name,
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www dot thinking,
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adelaide.com.edu.net.org dot every every thing possible.
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And to promote the intellectual property of the concept.
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We registered similar domains for every other Australian capital city.
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And for all the major cities of the English speaking world,
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we were not going to let someone get to us, get to at first,
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my concept at the time was simple,
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a single web-based point of entry for any citizen or potential visitor to
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Adelaide with an interest in the life of the mind to provide easy link
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through and access to events and organizations that were about promoting
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ideas and thinking at the time.
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And we were in what I still regard as something of a golden age,
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we had the Adelaide festival of ideas, Adelaide thinkers in residence,
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the Australian center for social innovation, the Don Dunstan foundation,
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the Hawk center, the center for Muslim,
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and non-Muslim understanding Royal institution Australia,
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the Australian science media center,
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the integrated design commission Adelaide writers week,
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and a burgeoning number of think tanks attached to our three universities.
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And I want to,
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at this stage acknowledge that the Adelaide festival of ideas had its origin
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under the last liberal government in South Australia.
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It was the then minister for the arts to Diana Laidlaw with whom I had my
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first conversation about resourcing a festival of ideas,
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but I digress back to 2010 11.
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It felt that we were approaching a new Renaissance little was I
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to know at the time that Mike ran stays,
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where numbered you see back in 2011, 12,
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the department of premier and cabinet was an ideas crucible for climate change,
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renewable energy for thought leadership.
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It was actually being dismantled and it was being reinvented by its new chief
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executive officer as a service center for the South Australian public centre
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sector. Mike Ramm was moved on and within six months,
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so die off to head up aging with John Hill rightly or wrongly.
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It felt to me as though thinking and ideas were no longer valued and
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that the past was no longer something upon which to build new legacies instead,
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things were to be abandoned.
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So here I am five years later having left the essay public sector in 2013 and
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thanks to the inaugural Bederson James award in 2015,
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I was afforded some grace and doing time in which to focus on rescuing the
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Adelaide festival of ideas from oblivion.
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And so along with a great bunch of AFO, true believers,
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who now comprise our board, I had the chance to pull this festival, as I said,
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from oblivion to reclaim the brand and I an intellectual
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property from government neglect to establish an independent not-for-profit
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incorporated association and to do some of the legwork,
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to reactivate old partnerships and to forge some new ones.
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I want to talk briefly about my idea to develop thinking Adelaide as an Adelaide
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festival of ideas, global alumni, to connect past present,
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and future guests of the Adelaide festival of ideas and others in a loose
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network of advocates and honorary ambassadors for both the Adelaide festival of
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ideas.
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And also for the idea of Adelaide as a place where ideas and ideals,
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where thinking is highly valued in a civil society. You see, at that time,
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none of our three public universities had invested terribly seriously in their
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alumni associations, the value of these diaspora relationships of knowledge,
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and know-how had been left largely untended thinking Adelaide
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has withered. And with that, I believe an incredible,
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powerful set of connections and opportunities that has not been able to make its
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contribution to our greater good. And so by way of set up for this idea,
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a couple of observations about mythology, about space, time,
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and relativity. And by this, I don't mean physics in every society,
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in every community and in every village around the world,
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there are stories that people tell themselves that are told about us by others,
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stories about identity and what it is that makes us distinctive,
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or maybe even special.
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I preface my next comment by reaffirming my deep passion for Adelaide and for
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South Australia.
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One of the things that we tell ourselves here is the Adelaide and South
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Australia is a great place to collaborate after all,
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it's seemingly easy to get quite the right people and quote around a table
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at reasonably short notice.
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And we tell ourselves that this means we do collaboration better. We're wrong,
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totally wrong.
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The urbanist and former Adelaide thinker in resident residents,
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creative industries, expert Charles Landry concluded of Adelaide,
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that we fall victim to confusing conversation with collaboration.
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Adelaide's very much a public sector town,
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and as such we've turned meetings into a pathology.
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And I pause it that the reason for this is that we place too little value
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on that most precious and scarce of resources,
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time like frogs in a pot of water warming slowly on the benchtop.
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We, we squandered time as though it has no value.
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We make meetings with no clear sense of purpose.
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We invite more people than we need to those meetings with no regard to the
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authorizing environment and hierarchies needed to make collaboration happen.
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And we squander valuable time that might otherwise be put to more productive,
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loose use,
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or that might dare I say it otherwise save the taxpayer a hard-earned money.
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So there having said that,
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I contend that we need to move some of that productive investment of time into
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cultivating and renewing relationships with the people who come to our place and
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who share with us their intellectual property. My thinking is two fold.
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First,
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we should better leverage these past and present relationships for the future
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benefit by connecting and collecting people for 16 years,
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government,
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half funded the Adelaide festival of ideas as a biennial event that is
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half of a half equals a quarter.
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Only one quarter of the opportunity realized as was the case for decades with
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our Adelaide festival of arts, Adelaide fringe.
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And WOMADelaide once every two years,
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we cranked up the engine and put on a festival of ideas.
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That's no way to cultivate meaningful change,
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and it's no way to build a brand or an audience or a sponsorship business case.
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That's no way to do anything other than to be entertained.
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When Mike ran hired me to run the arts portfolio, he gave me a very simple KPI,
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make the arts more relevant to more people.
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More of the time I recommended that we create a new season of events and
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activities in spring. And so in 2011,
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I moved the Adelaide festival of ideas from wintry July to October.
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And I'm sure some of you here remember those cold afternoons with lamp rugs
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and shawls. But again, I purposefully digress.
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If we're serious about winning friends and converting them into enthusiastic and
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influential champions for Adelaide in South Australia,
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we need to invest in that most human of transactions,
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a two way relationship of longevity.
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We need to value people and we need to nurture friendships.
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This is made hard by that phenomenon called by some people public sector
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mobility, and by others, the politicization that the senior public sector,
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it's hard to hold course of journey,
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but when programs are at the mercy of political pleasure and not subjected to
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the kind of rigor of evidence-based evaluation. And so in 16 years,
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they've been around 160 guests of the Adelaide festival of ideas.
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And of these 90% have been people who live elsewhere,
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or certainly who now live elsewhere.
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We should be cultivating those relationships more.
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And with more purpose than a photo opportunity for a scrapbook,
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there's an amazing organization out there called advance Australians
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abroad. It was established by the Howard government and it activates ex-patriot
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Australian networks around the world.
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It's run from new New York city by a great woman. Sarah Fino Marano,
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actually a former Adelaide based arts worker and administrator.
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Other state governments invest in a relationship with this incredible network,
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but not South Australia.
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Why I think because it falls in the cracks between fiefdoms,
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we simply do not have a strategic focus on the value of external
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relationships.
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What I'm proposing is to adopt a mantra in South Australia of better cultivating
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and sustaining the relationships with thought leaders that we bring into our
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local communion. And of course,
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I mean that in a non-religious sense and that we convert again in a
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non-religious sense,
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these people into champions and advocates for our shared mission.
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And that is to position Adelaide in South Australia as a place that is
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progressive, smart and prosperous.
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We mustn't be fooled by spin and the false hood that connectivity equals
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connectedness or that conversation equals collaboration.
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The second of my ideas this morning is informed by the opportunity that my new
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day job affords a sharper focus.
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And that is a notion that by better connecting people with collections that
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we develop for Adelaide,
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a special identity place for the promotion of a culture of,
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and for collecting as a culture broker.
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I know what I am not, I'm not an historian,
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but I have an opportunity to bring new energy and focus to the mission and
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value of history.
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I want to speak to the idea of developing a strategy for Adelaide as a city of
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collections after an extended period out in the cold,
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but doing consultancy work employment struck again for me in
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January, 2016,
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when I commenced a short stint as interim director of the Botanic gardens of
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South Australia,
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a brilliant collecting institution that not unlike the South Australia
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museum is also a place of science and research. And in late April,
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I commenced as chief executive officer of the history trust of South Australia.
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Our organisation is the keeper on behalf of the people of South Australia,
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of the state history collection.
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We present an annual history festival and we operate three museums, migration,
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motor, and maritime.
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There goes the plug while there will always be larger
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museums and bigger collections elsewhere in Australia and in the world.
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I want to propose the development of a 20th strategy to expand our collections
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footprint, both public and private.
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We should look at ways to achieve better exposure to our state collections,
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our city of collections and collecting.
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And this is not just a play for more taxpayer dollars to be invested in museums.
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Although having said that,
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Adelaide is the only state Capitol city without a museum that tells its state
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story more than migration, motor vehicles and maritime,
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which are the three public museums that comprise the belly week that I just
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described more than a history festival.
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It is to the human predilection for predilection,
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for collecting that I believe we must turn our focus,
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the collecting impulses as deeply ingrained in our cultural DNA as a food
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shopping and forgive the French,
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the impulse to acquisition is deeply embedded,
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and it is the estate upon which cultural inheritance is built to be the,
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to be at the impulse to now collect digital collections or the habits of my
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youth from stamps to coins, to records, to compact discs, to books.
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And these days to art collecting is something that most people understand.
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It is something that connects people,
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the passions that become obsessions that add meaning and purpose to our loves
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and our lives to the impulse deserves to be both better,
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studied and better understood.
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If Adelaide were to put its collected minds to the task,
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a city of collections could eventually become as significant a signifier for
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Adelaide as does the festival city tag that took decades to earn
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philanthropy and gifting has built the state history collection,
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and it has built the art gallery of South Australia's collection.
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We have the world's best and largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
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Islander artifacts at the South Australian museum.
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We established the world's first museum of migration and our boutique size and
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temperament lends itself to such a mantle. Even if it's not true. Now,
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the ambit is plausible it's for this reason that I enthusiastically and embrace
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and support the vision of the Art Gallery of South Australia,
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Snick of edge to establish Adelaide contemporary,
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a major contemporary art gallery that is also home to the
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entire art collection storage. But wait,
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there's more by fostering and promoting the practice of private collecting.
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We ultimately create the pipeline for building the state's collections,
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our common wealth,
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who knows what Richard's reside in the homes of private citizens from first
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edition books to the visual arts and all manner of material culture.
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We collect ourselves into immortality, of course,
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for many people collecting as a personal and deeply private thing.
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And that must always be respected,
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but surely with the right enablement,
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our many privately held collections might be temporarily revealed.
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The Roche house gallery in north Adelaide is reputed to be the biggest house
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collection in the Southern hemisphere,
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and then their existing state collections that are incredible,
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but that remain in storage because of a lack of opportunity and appropriate
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places in which to display them between our four state collecting institutions.
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We hold vast treasures on behalf of the public that await public
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sharing. And there are all manner of possible ways to display them.
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If only we had a place with sufficient temporary exhibition spaces in
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which to reveal them,
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perhaps the old Royal Adelaide hospital site will present opportunity.
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Perhaps there are plans and concepts that are already at concept stage.
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Perhaps we need a 20 year plan to get our collections act
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together, build it, and they will come.
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Perhaps the kind of investment is a pet's.
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This kind of investment is a more sustainable, less environmentally risky,
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and far less costly way to forge a future for our state than a large cement
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bunker full of plutonium, whatever, whatever the future holds.
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We already hold our future. It is called our past and it deserves to be shared.
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And by way of conclusion,
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it's through better connecting and through better understanding the impulse for
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collecting the Adelaide and South Australia has an opportunity to, again,
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pitch above its weight. Thank you.
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[inaudible].
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Looking around at the faces here today.
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I realise that many of us are of a vintage
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to recognize,
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or to remember a time when the prefix public was something to be
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very proud of. We had a public education,
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public transport, public hospitals, public broadcasting,
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again and again, and again, if it was public, we were proud of it.
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And then this long process of privatisation occurred so
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extreme that there was even a moment in new south Wales when public
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toilets would, would it be privatised.
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And those of us wishing to spend it to penny would,
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were threatened with the prospect of spending a dollar with an entrepreneur by
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the name of John Singleton.
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I I have the greatest respect for public
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as a prefix for public as a, as an adjective.
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And you young man,
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to me the the quintessential public servant,
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and you've done an extraordinary job, an extraordinary job.
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[inaudible] I got your SEO far overnight,
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and it contains a to whom it may concern from the high
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commissioner Australia house London, some lifting called
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Mike Grant. Let me just, you get the feeling for it.
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I'll just read a couple of paragraphs,
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which I understand he wrote it on his iPhone in an airport
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lounge.
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I have known Greg McKing for 20 years and worked with him closely for almost a
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decade when I was premier minister of the arts, economic development,
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social inclusion, sustainability, and climate change.
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Mr. Mackey in so many ways had a profound impact across my,
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within the government. He was often referred to as our best ideas man,
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but in a rare combination,
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he was also an excellent administrator who inspired extraordinary loyalty as a
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team member.
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He also enjoyed bipartisan support respected by the liberal opposition,
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South Australia and by senior ministers in the Howard
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government.
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And he's excellent relations with the Commonwealth public service also proved
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invaluable to South Australia.
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And that's just the first two paragraphs event of a,
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to whom it may concern of approximately the length of James Joyce's
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Ulysses.
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You mentioned collecting the Impulsely ancient human impulse to
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collect and not simply a human one. We've got bow bow. For example,
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we share that with our birds, right. Collectors. Is there any,
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any career that you still wish to complete hard?
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Look, I have a secret fantasy of just growing vegetables down on the floor at
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peninsula.
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Pushing off a serious question. Do you still have, I mean, you've done so much,
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Greg.
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I've sat back and watched you with fascinated aura really over the last years.
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Is there anything you haven't done? Well.
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That's a difficult question, Phillip, one of in,
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in public, in the public sector and for better or worse,
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I seem to have found myself largely drawn toward the public
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sector as an avenue for public service in the last 15 years.
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I, I I always hankered for the
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reorganization of the administrative functions of the public sector to
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create a department for cultural development.
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When I was promoted to deputy chief executive in premier and cabinet,
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I was appointed the deputy chief executive
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for what was the day nine. It was
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Mike completely forgettable. It was something that brought you to forgettable.
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And I convinced Mike to let me rebrand the role as deputy chief
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executive cultural development, because that's sort of what I feel I do.
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And he agreed and it brought
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together a whole stack of things. You'd like thinkers in residence program.
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The arts of course Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.
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It was an incredibly exciting portfolio of,
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of poor struggling noble ambits.
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And I think that we could take a leaf out of the European
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government model and establish a department for culture that brings
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together various parts with culture doesn't exist in a vacuum.
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I'm sure you will appreciate that. It's,
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it's an important set of connections. It's everything we do.
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It's everything we do. That's important.
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It's everything we do that I think makes our
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story with telling.
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Mike mentioned in passing that you were able to communicate across party
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lines. Now I remember,
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and it wasn't so long ago when there were great friendships,
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even love affairs across the across party lines.
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The number of people that had affairs in Canberra during the Whitlam
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years would astonish you. And I'm willing to give a secret information later,
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but that withered and died, particularly after the dismissal in Canberra,
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which seemed to be seen to be the end of it. But across the board,
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there were so many areas, including the arts,
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where there was passionate bi-partisan enthusiasm were premiers are
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not just labor premiers wants to be the minister for the arts,
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absolutely.
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And
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impart for a politician with a heavy set of
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obligations. And probably you wouldn't want to be the minister for health,
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just the minister for health after all people die on your watch.
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You being minister for the arts is something good.
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The arts was seen as something fun at a political level,
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and therefore it's something nice to have.
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And of course there are members of parliament who are themselves deeply
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committed arts citizens,
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and occasionally they find their way into cabinet and occasionally they actually
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get offered the portfolio.
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The arts has been a bi-partisan space largely in Australia,
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00:25:29.470 --> 00:25:33.340
but it's less of an active bipartisanship and more of a,
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this is not something that matters to the people whose votes matter.
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And therefore we can, we can,
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we can ignore it or we can agree to not politicize it. So.
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The great Andre Malraux was advisor on artistic matters
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to JFK,
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to the president of France and nugget Coombs.
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And I visited him when,
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in the process of setting up the Australia council and Malraux gave us
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advice. He said, you must make the president,
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the minister for the arts. He filled this,
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he was talking about the gold in his case. He said, if you get the president,
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he will get the money and he will be too busy to interfere.
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And I always found that the wisest of council.
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And so the first thing was to make sure that the incumbent premier certainly in
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any labor stipend, sometimes in liberal states, took the,
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took the chore and deter for prime ministers.
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Whitlam of course loved the job,
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but as soon as it was downgraded,
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the Malraux warning came true. I,
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we were suddenly stuck with junior minister and when bill
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McMahon was briefly and forget to be prime minister,
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and he's known was Peter House who I immediately dubbed a pain
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in the arts. And it is,
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it is terribly important also for symbolism, not merely for access to money,
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but to have the art taken that seriously.
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Yes it is.
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And speaking for myself in the years that I've headed up the arts portfolio
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here,
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it was true that the premier as minister for the arts was an incredibly busy
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guy,
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but he extended to me just the most incredible
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amount of trust and respect, and that was mutual.
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And it meant that I could get on with doing the job
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and know that in cabinet, at budget time,
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he was in our corner. And it didn't mean that Mike neglected the portfolio.
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He shared the portfolio with another senior government minister,
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00:27:48.350 --> 00:27:52.040
and that meant we had two guaranteed votes in cabinet.
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Then we had the minister for Adelaide and minister for education,
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Jane Lomax Smith, who was after dilated law,
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the second person to commit to supporting the Adelaide festival of ideas.
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So we had three guaranteed votes in cabinet.
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It's an exercise in numbers, really an exercise in numbers.
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And we were just incredibly fortunate that even though many people probably
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regard Kevin Foley as probably the antithesis of an arts citizen
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by the end of those years,
448
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Kevin and I had this sort of pension duty act that added
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estimates time budget bilaterals,
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that he would have a spike at me and I would, you know,
451
00:28:32.120 --> 00:28:35.240
cop it and then keep smiling. And by the end of it,
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we always got where we needed to get.
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I mentioned the, the endless process,
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the ongoing process of privatizations of anything deemed public
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and all the threats that,
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that introduces we were always told from day one that
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the money that was evaporating from government would be more than
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later for,
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00:28:59.060 --> 00:29:03.830
by the generosity of corporations didn't quite happen to them.
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I can't speak for other jurisdictions, but certainly in South Australia,
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if it never happened we have a very small corporate base here.
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We have a larger philanthropic base,
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but even still relative to the more populous states we
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are, we will back in the pack.
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The opportunity for corporates to
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partner with the arts is less about the return on
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investment to the business and more about the individual passion of a chief
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executive or a board chairman.
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00:29:42.160 --> 00:29:46.960
And a corporation would all of a sudden be very concerned about the dangers of
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funding,
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any party or any individual it might get overly
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provocative.
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That, that is a reality.
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I certainly know at the time that the Olympic dam expansion was on the
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books before the collapse of the price of uranium that
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BHP Billiton who had a five-year partnership with South Australian youth
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arts board and the come out festival youth arts festival they got particularly
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sensitive at a time when in a parade there were,
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there was a display about anti-nuclear that that was the choice of
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school children.
481
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And we were not the arbiter or the censor of their enthusiasm.
482
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Greg, I'm going to open this to questions from the audience shortly,
483
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because it's a good chance to talk to talk to this extraordinary for that you
484
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mentioned in passing the issue of your own sexuality.
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Was that ever a problem for you in Ghana?
486
00:30:49.350 --> 00:30:52.560
No, I can honestly say to my face,
487
00:30:52.650 --> 00:30:56.490
it was never a problem in government. And quite frankly,
488
00:30:56.850 --> 00:31:01.410
what is said in the locker room to quote
489
00:31:01.710 --> 00:31:02.543
Donald Trump
490
00:31:04.260 --> 00:31:08.760
is as long as it stayed in the locker room and wasn't made public,
491
00:31:08.820 --> 00:31:13.290
I actually really didn't care. And still don't care what people think.
492
00:31:13.380 --> 00:31:16.330
So it was a, a sort of don't ask, don't tell about.
493
00:31:16.560 --> 00:31:19.920
No, no, it was always, I was always pretty out. I was all believe me.
494
00:31:19.921 --> 00:31:20.910
I was always pretty out.
495
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:26.240
And I feel I was always treated with respect and,
496
00:31:26.241 --> 00:31:31.230
and I am still treated with respect, ladies and gentlemen, are.
497
00:31:31.230 --> 00:31:35.340
There any members of the audience that would like to engage in this?
498
00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:39.690
I would love you to do so there's a microphone in the middle of the
499
00:31:40.560 --> 00:31:43.260
hole and yes, someone is.
500
00:31:43.270 --> 00:31:44.830
Already well,
501
00:31:44.910 --> 00:31:48.660
this gentlemen who I know it gets to the microphone.
502
00:31:48.990 --> 00:31:53.370
There was only one incidence in my bureaucratic or public
503
00:31:53.780 --> 00:31:57.480
small people in real life where sexuality came into it.
504
00:31:57.750 --> 00:32:02.460
When I was a candidate for Lord mayor in 2003 my fellow
505
00:32:03.120 --> 00:32:07.170
counselor and Moran in a big article in the pub in the Sunday mail
506
00:32:07.620 --> 00:32:11.040
declared that she didn't think Adelaide was ready for a Gaylord mare
507
00:32:12.490 --> 00:32:16.920
course. This was the same counselor. And I say this with, with some, with,
508
00:32:17.310 --> 00:32:20.100
with affection somehow, somewhat too.
509
00:32:20.190 --> 00:32:24.540
And she's also the person who presided over the demolition of
510
00:32:25.020 --> 00:32:27.120
most of the public toilets in Adelaide,
511
00:32:28.620 --> 00:32:31.890
for reasons that I best leaf to the people's speculation.
512
00:32:33.120 --> 00:32:35.070
I remember. And then she wondered.
513
00:32:35.070 --> 00:32:38.160
Why she was not a gay icon like Jane next Smith.
514
00:32:39.950 --> 00:32:42.890
I suddenly remember an early column I wrote for the age,
515
00:32:42.891 --> 00:32:47.210
my very closest friend was gay and he introduced me to the,
516
00:32:47.990 --> 00:32:52.460
to that side of reality when I was in my late teens, not as a practitioner.
517
00:32:52.460 --> 00:32:55.340
I was just going to save as this sense, but as.
518
00:32:55.430 --> 00:32:59.000
Someone of great of anthropological curiosity,
519
00:32:59.110 --> 00:33:02.870
and I remember discovering that the various gay,
520
00:33:03.410 --> 00:33:06.920
the various famous Lewes around Melbourne all had pet names.
521
00:33:07.010 --> 00:33:10.250
There was one next to the library in Swanson street,
522
00:33:10.251 --> 00:33:12.320
which was known as the reading room.
523
00:33:13.460 --> 00:33:18.080
And there was one with the made up of those strange translucent glass
524
00:33:18.081 --> 00:33:22.970
tiles. And I think that was called the, oh,
525
00:33:23.120 --> 00:33:27.050
I've forgotten now, early onset dementia, cert.
526
00:33:27.900 --> 00:33:28.180
Philip, I,
527
00:33:28.180 --> 00:33:32.710
I almost feel reluctant to disrupt the flow of your conversation is getting
528
00:33:32.770 --> 00:33:33.603
particularly interesting.
529
00:33:33.760 --> 00:33:38.260
I started just two thoughts in regard to the two
530
00:33:38.261 --> 00:33:43.240
ideas that Greg mentioned in terms of the network
531
00:33:43.540 --> 00:33:48.490
of people who had previously spoke at the festival ideas
532
00:33:48.940 --> 00:33:53.680
and also the collections idea in regard to the network
533
00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:56.830
there might be a case for thinking also about the,
534
00:33:57.100 --> 00:34:01.600
would it be $500 thousand people who've come along over the years to the
535
00:34:02.170 --> 00:34:04.720
writer's festival as in fact,
536
00:34:05.080 --> 00:34:09.550
a potentially bigger network of people,
537
00:34:09.910 --> 00:34:14.260
at least some of them could potentially be linked into the hundred and
538
00:34:14.261 --> 00:34:18.790
60 or saw, I think you mentioned from the festival ideas.
539
00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:20.260
So before you respond.
540
00:34:20.260 --> 00:34:24.040
To that, I should point out that there is a subtle difference in emphasis.
541
00:34:24.370 --> 00:34:27.760
The writers weeks tend to infect favor fiction,
542
00:34:28.690 --> 00:34:31.780
the festivals of ideas, nonfiction. I think there are,
543
00:34:32.230 --> 00:34:33.520
there are a good contrast.
544
00:34:33.610 --> 00:34:34.660
They are a good contrast,
545
00:34:34.661 --> 00:34:39.550
but still at the point that you're making is that people who know people and who
546
00:34:39.850 --> 00:34:44.710
talk to people can be really powerful ambassadors. And so,
547
00:34:44.980 --> 00:34:48.100
ah, I accept, accept that as a really good suggestion.
548
00:34:48.741 --> 00:34:53.020
In regard to the, the collections idea, perhaps slightly more critically
549
00:34:54.610 --> 00:34:59.560
in terms of the sort of leverage and benefits that could flow from
550
00:34:59.561 --> 00:34:59.950
that.
551
00:34:59.950 --> 00:35:04.810
And I'm sure there are many I assume it would be partly connected to the
552
00:35:04.811 --> 00:35:09.130
idea to visit visitors to South Australia, to tourism,
553
00:35:09.160 --> 00:35:09.993
if you like.
554
00:35:10.661 --> 00:35:14.680
And given that the current projections really put an emphasis upon
555
00:35:14.890 --> 00:35:18.370
Chinese tourists for the next 10,
556
00:35:18.371 --> 00:35:21.910
20 years has been the major growth area.
557
00:35:22.300 --> 00:35:26.860
I think you would perhaps need to try and connect your collections idea
558
00:35:28.150 --> 00:35:32.860
among other things specifically to that 20 years worth of Chinese
559
00:35:32.861 --> 00:35:34.510
visitors. Absolutely.
560
00:35:34.630 --> 00:35:39.300
And indeed we are utterly at providing multi-lingual
561
00:35:39.510 --> 00:35:44.430
interpretation and for visitors who don't have English as a first language,
562
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:45.833
thank you.
563
00:35:46.830 --> 00:35:51.540
When I was a victim was with any time I've ever been president of anything.
564
00:35:51.990 --> 00:35:54.480
When I was prisoned at the Victorian council for the arts,
565
00:35:54.481 --> 00:35:59.400
we did a survey of the number of significant convictions in
566
00:35:59.401 --> 00:36:02.670
Victoria and to our astonishment,
567
00:36:02.700 --> 00:36:07.020
there were over 500 places that could be called museums.
568
00:36:07.680 --> 00:36:12.060
Now some of them were absolutely right bag, but fun,
569
00:36:12.720 --> 00:36:15.900
and they were just everywhere and we had, we never developed it,
570
00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:20.580
but the idea in fact of the passport that people go along and get a
571
00:36:20.581 --> 00:36:23.220
stamp and say meandered around the country,
572
00:36:23.520 --> 00:36:27.870
because for every object that's on display in a major institution,
573
00:36:27.871 --> 00:36:32.820
there are dozens and dozens, perhaps hundreds of eclectic little collection.
574
00:36:33.080 --> 00:36:36.240
That that's absolutely correct. And in South Australia,
575
00:36:36.450 --> 00:36:40.740
there's a vast network of largely community owned and operated
576
00:36:41.430 --> 00:36:45.000
community museums in regional, South Australia and metropolitan Adelaide.
577
00:36:45.510 --> 00:36:50.220
And the history trust has administered for more than 20 years.
578
00:36:50.550 --> 00:36:53.250
Our fund, a special fund that government has provided.
579
00:36:53.520 --> 00:36:55.800
It's $150,000 a year.
580
00:36:55.801 --> 00:36:58.650
It's only $150,000 a year.
581
00:36:58.651 --> 00:37:01.650
And that number has not changed in over 20 years.
582
00:37:02.700 --> 00:37:07.380
We have an incredible opportunity to, and I,
583
00:37:07.381 --> 00:37:08.880
I'm very interested in my,
584
00:37:09.200 --> 00:37:13.590
in my role with the history trust in identifying corporate and philanthropic
585
00:37:13.591 --> 00:37:16.350
partnerships to help grow that fund,
586
00:37:16.530 --> 00:37:20.940
to enable more support and more facilitation for those community
587
00:37:20.941 --> 00:37:21.774
museums.
588
00:37:21.870 --> 00:37:26.520
As one of your more elderly guests. And I know I speak for Barry Jones as well.
589
00:37:26.521 --> 00:37:30.360
We'd be willing to offer ourselves for texting dermal purposes,
590
00:37:31.830 --> 00:37:35.040
and you could set up a new form of national portrait gallery
591
00:37:37.380 --> 00:37:38.370
between that and met them to.
592
00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:42.870
Move over at the house of wax. Exactly. Yeah. Madam.
593
00:37:44.930 --> 00:37:49.340
I'd like to ask a slightly provocative question as this is the fiscal of ideas.
594
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.200
I wonder if the two of you could nominate your personal,
595
00:37:54.201 --> 00:37:59.150
your favorite personal abomination in Sydney for your Phillip
596
00:37:59.330 --> 00:38:01.160
and Adelaide for you, Greg,
597
00:38:01.550 --> 00:38:06.530
and what might be a brilliant way to overcome.
598
00:38:06.531 --> 00:38:11.480
It could be anything, it could be a building or, you know, a situation,
599
00:38:11.930 --> 00:38:16.880
but something that would be brilliant noisier, Gerard Henderson,
600
00:38:19.640 --> 00:38:22.100
something that's non liable, less would be good stuff.
601
00:38:23.780 --> 00:38:28.190
Okay. And I trust that your question was abomination abomination.
602
00:38:28.190 --> 00:38:29.420
Sorry. Abomination.
603
00:38:30.200 --> 00:38:34.070
Wow. Well, I will,
604
00:38:34.430 --> 00:38:38.500
I will reserve final judgment for the completion of the project.
605
00:38:38.501 --> 00:38:43.360
I'm really pretty cranky about the tunnel through Reimar park at the moment.
606
00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:48.930
[inaudible] Of course, as a public sector executive,
607
00:38:48.931 --> 00:38:53.370
I'm actually not allowed to say that. So just erase that, that little component.
608
00:38:54.030 --> 00:38:56.640
You are going to have a world-class collection of
609
00:38:58.170 --> 00:39:03.030
radio radioactive route to understand there'll be a little pool of
610
00:39:03.230 --> 00:39:03.690
big crowd.
611
00:39:03.690 --> 00:39:07.860
Well, Pepsi, uranium glass was very, very popular a century ago, but perhaps,
612
00:39:08.100 --> 00:39:09.270
perhaps that's our future.
613
00:39:10.590 --> 00:39:13.530
I would like to apologize for what I said a bit Jared industry,
614
00:39:15.330 --> 00:39:16.500
but before I arrived,
615
00:39:16.830 --> 00:39:21.210
you sent me over a little thing was some local member of the commentary was
616
00:39:21.211 --> 00:39:25.680
complaining bitterly about what you saw as the progressive political
617
00:39:25.681 --> 00:39:30.150
bias of those attending and those sitting on
618
00:39:30.151 --> 00:39:35.100
stage. And he said, where, where is Andrew Bolden?
619
00:39:35.101 --> 00:39:37.770
I'd like to ask you that question. Where is Andrew book?
620
00:39:38.790 --> 00:39:42.570
Does anybody really care? Well, he certainly did
621
00:39:45.450 --> 00:39:49.050
Greg preaching to the converted here,
622
00:39:49.350 --> 00:39:51.570
but as a fellow public servant, how do you,
623
00:39:51.780 --> 00:39:56.040
how do you get your message to the public service?
624
00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:01.260
That's a very interesting question.
625
00:40:03.450 --> 00:40:08.400
Thanks to the commissioner for public employment and
626
00:40:08.780 --> 00:40:11.910
Maraney airy. We managed to get a Sage in South Australian government,
627
00:40:11.911 --> 00:40:16.560
electronic messaging service message out to promote the Adelaide festival of
628
00:40:16.561 --> 00:40:17.394
ideas.
629
00:40:17.760 --> 00:40:22.410
That was something that we are allowed to do jury within the rules and
630
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:28.020
and Irma obliged and 80,000 public servants got a
631
00:40:28.021 --> 00:40:30.390
message. And perhaps some of you are here today.
632
00:40:33.540 --> 00:40:37.110
It's about an exercise of discretion,
633
00:40:38.340 --> 00:40:42.240
language, nuance, timing,
634
00:40:42.870 --> 00:40:45.060
and platform, I guess. And that's,
635
00:40:45.170 --> 00:40:49.290
that's an interesting wobble board of of considerations.
636
00:40:50.820 --> 00:40:53.880
I don't feel censored indeed if I were,
637
00:40:53.970 --> 00:40:57.420
I perhaps wouldn't have said some of what I've put in my,
638
00:40:57.510 --> 00:40:58.590
in my talk this morning.
639
00:40:59.970 --> 00:41:03.840
And I shared those thoughts as personal thoughts,
640
00:41:03.870 --> 00:41:07.140
not on behalf of of the organization that I lead,
641
00:41:08.940 --> 00:41:12.930
but it does behoove us as public servants to
642
00:41:13.200 --> 00:41:14.700
exercise judgment.
643
00:41:16.680 --> 00:41:17.513
Hi, Greg.
644
00:41:17.561 --> 00:41:22.050
I was just wondering if you had any have been thinking about ideas for future
645
00:41:22.980 --> 00:41:26.640
festival ideas to encourage more young people to come along,
646
00:41:26.910 --> 00:41:30.690
because one of the themes that I've noticed over the weekend is the importance
647
00:41:30.691 --> 00:41:34.550
of growing community, where older people and younger altogether.
648
00:41:34.551 --> 00:41:37.910
And I'm just wondering if you'd thought about connecting with schools and maybe,
649
00:41:38.330 --> 00:41:40.160
you know, broadening the audience.
650
00:41:41.470 --> 00:41:42.620
We've we,
651
00:41:42.621 --> 00:41:46.630
we think a lot about that and one of the things that we,
652
00:41:47.500 --> 00:41:49.930
we should have done in planning this year,
653
00:41:49.931 --> 00:41:52.030
but we actually didn't have any control over.
654
00:41:52.031 --> 00:41:55.960
It was the timing of the festival when the timing of the university exam period.
655
00:41:56.260 --> 00:42:00.670
So unfortunately, but a lot of university students aren't here, but I also,
656
00:42:00.880 --> 00:42:04.210
I would add whilst conceding,
657
00:42:04.211 --> 00:42:08.440
the importance of access and accepting and embracing the importance of a
658
00:42:08.441 --> 00:42:09.400
festival of ideas,
659
00:42:09.401 --> 00:42:14.200
being a platform for people of all ages is that I
660
00:42:14.201 --> 00:42:15.670
get, I do get cranky,
661
00:42:15.671 --> 00:42:17.830
and I know this is not where your question was coming from,
662
00:42:17.831 --> 00:42:22.720
but I get cranky about people who belittle an older audience.
663
00:42:23.590 --> 00:42:26.710
We are the majority in the state.
664
00:42:27.490 --> 00:42:32.410
We are at a point in life where reflection and repose
665
00:42:33.040 --> 00:42:37.480
is more appealing. And certainly for myself in my twenties,
666
00:42:37.481 --> 00:42:41.020
I wouldn't have been in the least bit interested in coming along to a festival
667
00:42:41.021 --> 00:42:42.490
of ideas. You know,
668
00:42:42.550 --> 00:42:46.090
a lot of boring people talking about boring subjects.
669
00:42:47.020 --> 00:42:51.550
I was more interested in, you know some of those things that I refer to it.
670
00:42:54.070 --> 00:42:54.903
As, you know,
671
00:42:54.940 --> 00:42:59.640
certain Australia produced this country's first Saint had Griggs
672
00:42:59.641 --> 00:43:03.070
stayed on in the in the legislature,
673
00:43:03.160 --> 00:43:06.820
in the body involved in handing out orders of Australia.
674
00:43:06.850 --> 00:43:11.740
I was going to suggest that we add to it, the role of secular site.
675
00:43:12.820 --> 00:43:17.590
Greg, I think qualifies. He's already produced a couple of clear miracles,
676
00:43:17.620 --> 00:43:19.960
getting the festival ideas,
677
00:43:19.961 --> 00:43:23.650
going in the first place and keeping him in the second.
678
00:43:24.070 --> 00:43:28.930
And so I would like to propose you now as a South Australia's for secular
679
00:43:29.290 --> 00:43:32.260
site, and I hope it will be carried on the voices.
680
00:43:37.870 --> 00:43:38.703
[inaudible].
681
00:43:40.280 --> 00:43:40.670
Thank you.