The NSW Premier was today quizzed about the $7-million being sought from the state
for the Newcastle Region Art Gallery project, to match a federal contribution.
He replied, “Money does not grow on trees, the mint in Macquarie Street in Sydney closed 100 years ago, if we don’t have it we can’t spend it.”
But it was recently revealed $350-million was allocated to arts funding in New South Wales, with $319-million of that spent in Sydney.
Tomorrow night, Newcastle Council will decide whether to put the gallery redevelopment on hold, until the city has an operating surplus.
The Premier told local media today, “I think the city has to work out what they want first and come and engage with government.”
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The Premier is correct – money doesn’t grow on trees. The Labor party knows that as we got nothing from them in all the years that they had Newcastle in their grip.
Come on – over $300 million for Sydney arts but we have to hand back the Federal $7 million because the Liberals won’t make good their third of the funding. How much of NSW economy goes through the port of Newcastle ? Weak Weak Weak, they can find the money tree for cutting the rail !
They have set aside $120M to cut the rail. Give us that money for the Art Gallery our pools, beautification of the train line, more cycleways etc. I would call that a win/win
the BOF just playing political games with the feds….again, their not interested in culture & art, sadly its just money based decisions when it comes to conservatives with no vision.