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- 24 May 2005
Local Government Cultural Awards
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Page: 15959
The Hon. KAYEE GRIFFIN [9.10 p.m.]: On Friday 6 May I had the pleasure of representing the Premier and the Minister for Local Government at the Local Government Cultural Awards 2005. The Local Government and Shires Associations of New South Wales initiated the awards last year in an attempt to reward and acknowledge advances and innovation in cultural development by New South Wales councils. Councils in New South Wales are responding to an increased awareness and community interest in cultural issues. The evening was an excellent opportunity for councils to showcase their efforts in managing cultural development in their areas. The entries showed various approaches by councils all over the State, with 47 councils entering the awards this year.
I noted on the night that a broad cross section of rural, regional and urban councils entered this year. It was encouraging to see that the entries were not limited only to large councils, but that a number of small and rural councils entered innovative projects. During the evening I took the opportunity to pass on the Premier's thanks to the Local Government and Shires Associations for the advice they provided when the Department of Local Government and Ministry for the Arts prepared the Cultural Planning Guidelines for Local Government last year. The guidelines help to explain the importance of local cultural planning and assist councils looking to develop cultural plans for their communities.
Local councils are amongst the largest and most generous contributors to cultural development in New South Wales. Their contribution and the important role they play has been recognised in the Local Government Act, amended in 2002 to determine that a council may be required to include in its management plan a statement on cultural matters. Increasingly, it is being recognised that activities by all levels of government can have social, environmental and cultural impacts. The entries for the 2005 Local Government Cultural Awards demonstrated a range of contributions local councils have made to the cultural development of their individual communities. They included organising festivals, providing museums, libraries and art galleries, public art exhibitions, designing and constructing public spaces, and working with particular groups in the community which may otherwise have limited opportunities to participate in cultural activities.
I take this opportunity to mention several of the projects that made the short list this year. The Outback Letterbox Library is a project undertaken by Broken Hill City Council by providing a valuable service to residents. The Outback Letterbox Library provides residents who live in remote areas with access to library books and resources through a partnership with the State Library of New South Wales and the Broken Hill City Library. Some library members in this local government area live more than 500 kilometres from their closest public library building. This program helps residents and families access library services that were previously inaccessible to such a geographically vast community.
Another innovative entry is the Camden Council Babies into Books [BIBs] Program. BIBs is an early literacy initiative developed by Camden Council's library service. It aims to promote the importance of reading and literacy to parents and carers of children aged 0-12 months. Since the project began, new babies born in the Camden local government area receive a free calico library bag, book, bib and booklist of recommended titles for parents and carers. This project is part of a long-term strategy to promote literacy and lifelong learning with the view of increasing high school retention rates. The project was started in 2002 and has progressed since then in three stages.
An entry that was of personal significance to me was the Canterbury City Council's respect, unity, peace multicultural street mosaics. This project began during my term as Mayor of Canterbury City Council and I was personally involved in its implementation. This entry won the Cultural Programs-Projects Award at the end of the night, so it gave me great pleasure not only to see the project come to fruition but to be present when the award was announced. The respect, unity, peace mosaics have all been constructed with a distinct theme of multiculturalism, including multicultural icons, multicultural young people's experiences, Anzacs in a multicultural community, cultural diversity in community gardens, and cultural diversity in local history through recognition of our Aboriginal culture and heritage. The words "respect", "unity" and "peace" have a very important meaning for the residents of Canterbury, and I am proud that I was involved with the project and saw many of the plans to fruition.
The Local Government Cultural Awards was a great opportunity to publicly acknowledge and reward the excellent work being done in local government to enhance our cultural identity. I extend my congratulations to all the councils who entered in the 2005 Local Government Cultural Awards. I was impressed by all the innovative and creative projects that were showcased. I acknowledge the hard work and effort that goes into getting a new project up and running, and sustaining its long-term success. I congratulate everyone who participated in the awards.
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