Ursus Maritimus wrote: ↑Fri Nov 15, 2024 7:46 am
There is money - big money - in the weapons industry. Not so much in the museum industry, if you can call it an industry. Malinauskas has his hands full with the forced merger of the University of Adelaide and UniSA, green hydrogen and talking to Albanese about social media bans. I actually like him as a premier, but the point stands.
I can see the cultural centre being built, but if it is, it'll spend a lot of time on the procrastination pile.
The belief that the Museums don't make money is simple not true; not as much as defence, sure, but then I don't know of any industries that come close to defence in that respect. Museums need investment to make money, just like anything else. Our state is unique in that it's legislated that our main Museum and Gallery must be free for anyone (excluding those visiting exhibitions), given the opportunity I think there are several politicians who would change this but I don't think any changes to this would benefit the level of investment that's currently going into SAM for instance.
People can argue that Adelaide isn't a drawcard for these things, but if you actually bothered to research our collections, you would realise what a lucrative position we're in in terms of what's currently not on display. Bearing in mine that Adelaide was colonised by free settlers, typically with some level wealth (for the time) and wealth at that time typically meant an appreciation for Art and Museums.
We can make all kinds of excuses for Malinauskas on this, but at the end of the day, it's simply because he doesn't give about shit about this type of culture. He's a sport nut. He would have so many people in the drivers seat with him on all of those things that you've claimed that he's doing, Marshall did just as much and still managed to consider most realms of government responsibility.
My gripe with Mali on this, is he talks about a lack of financial resources to make it happen (despite there already being a sizeable Federal Govt contribution), but then spends $45m on upgrading Lyndoch Oval for two fixtures in Gather Round 2025? He used the inquiry into the South Australian Museum to preach his support for the institution, but the reason that the Museum was making those research position cuts was because Mali's government stripped it even further of its funding prior to all of this.
My last point for consideration is this, SAM's last upgrade was the construction of its front foyer, cafe and gift shop and some rejigging of the Aboriginal Cultures Gallery in the late-90s, prior to that, it's last upgrade was sometime in the late-70s/early-80s; the exhibits have barely changed at all in that time. Despite this, every year thousands of primary and secondary school students use the facility to learn, seniors groups use the space for meets ups, interstate and international tourists visit because it's a cost effective attraction that's right in the heart of the CBD. That's SAM, similar can be said for AGSA. Now imagine is Tarrkarri was in the mix, but not just any Museum, the first of its kind in the world.
