Thursday, 1 June 2023

Southern Metropolitan Region

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:41): (236) My constituency question is for the attention of the Minister for Creative Industries, and it concerns the Australian National Academy of Music based at the South Melbourne town hall in the City of Port Phillip. This important national training organisation deserves proper support. Before the last election, the coalition committed $10 million to support ANAM and to support the reinvigoration of the South Melbourne town hall. Already $15 million has been provided by the City of Port Phillip, $2.5 million by donors and $12.5 million from the former federal government in 2019. So it is with shock that this important institution in the electorate of Albert Park, in South Melbourne, was not in the state budget. It was a great disappointment and a repudiation of a national training institution that deserved support in the state budget. The state government has blown its financial position, and that may be the reason, but this is an important national institution that is being forced to suffer, so I ask him to review this.