❓ Ms. Evangel inquires about the progress of the new Museum project. The Minister for Culture and the Arts provides an update, highlighting the project's significance, funding, and the selection of Brookfield Multiplex as the preferred respondent, while also criticising the opposition's past stance.
AnsweredQoN 209Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
NEW MUSEUM PROJECT
209. Ms E. EVANGEL to the Minister for
Culture and the Arts:
Minister, I was excited to hear that
the new Museum project has reached another key milestone. Can the minister
please update the house on the progress of this very important project?
209. Ms E. EVANGEL to the Minister for
Culture and the Arts:
Minister, I was excited to hear that
the new Museum project has reached another key milestone. Can the minister
please update the house on the progress of this very important project?
AnswerView source ↗
I am very happy to do so. Finally, Western
Australia is getting a Museum in Perth for the whole of Western Australia that
it deserves and of which it can be proud. The need for a new Museum development
in the city has been recognised for at least 20 years, and this government is
actually delivering it. The Western Australian Museum is a major cultural,
scientific and educational institution for Western Australia, and its
facilities in the past 20 years, particularly since the Francis Street building
had to be closed in 2004, have been completely inadequate and lacking in space,
contemporary design and appropriate exhibition areas, albeit a wonderful job is
done with the current facilities. Since we have been in government this project
has been kept alive. We allocated $428 million in the 2012 budget, and a thorough
process has been undertaken between then and now to get to this point of having
decided on a preferred bidder or respondent in response to the request for
proposals. That preferred respondent is Brookfield Multiplex, working with the
international architects OMA and Hassell. I make the point that Western Australia
would not be getting a new Museum, which is needed so much, if the Labor Party
were in government. At the last election it opposed this project going ahead,
and the Leader of the Opposition —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Midland!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : The Leader of the Opposition made some pejorative comments
about the Museum only being a place for woolly mammoths; he obviously has not
been to the Western Australian Museum in recent times —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Members!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : — and has no idea about the role —
Mr
B.S. Wyatt : We knew there was a debt problem then!
The
SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : The Leader of the Opposition clearly has no idea about the role
of contemporary museums in not only cultural preservation and presentation, but
also in relation to the education of children, and adults for that matter, and
also in relation to scientific research, particularly for natural history in Western
Australia and Western Australia's biodiversity. The preferred
respondent nomination consortium at the moment, as I said, is Brookfield
Multiplex, together with the international architecture company from Holland,
OMA. OMA has a very strong international reputation and has been responsible
for other major projects such as Seattle Public Library, Qatar National
Library, the striking China Central Television building in Beijing and the
expansion of the fine arts museum in Quebec. OMA will be working with Hassell,
which is a local Australian architecture company that has completed many
projects in China, South-East Asia and the United Kingdom, and, closer to home,
the one40William project and Brookfield Place in Perth city centre. The reserve
respondent is a consortium led by Doric, with the French architecture company
Ateliers Jean Nouvel, working together with local architects. That consortium
also put in a very strong proposal, particularly in design terms, but we needed
to make a decision on one consortium and that has now been determined.
Negotiations over the next four to six weeks will finalise the details,
including the design, and then we will be able to get on with delivering this
much-needed new facility, which will be a wonderful centre for Western Australians,
young and old, and for visitors to the state to visit from 2020.
Australia is getting a Museum in Perth for the whole of Western Australia that
it deserves and of which it can be proud. The need for a new Museum development
in the city has been recognised for at least 20 years, and this government is
actually delivering it. The Western Australian Museum is a major cultural,
scientific and educational institution for Western Australia, and its
facilities in the past 20 years, particularly since the Francis Street building
had to be closed in 2004, have been completely inadequate and lacking in space,
contemporary design and appropriate exhibition areas, albeit a wonderful job is
done with the current facilities. Since we have been in government this project
has been kept alive. We allocated $428 million in the 2012 budget, and a thorough
process has been undertaken between then and now to get to this point of having
decided on a preferred bidder or respondent in response to the request for
proposals. That preferred respondent is Brookfield Multiplex, working with the
international architects OMA and Hassell. I make the point that Western Australia
would not be getting a new Museum, which is needed so much, if the Labor Party
were in government. At the last election it opposed this project going ahead,
and the Leader of the Opposition —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Midland!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : The Leader of the Opposition made some pejorative comments
about the Museum only being a place for woolly mammoths; he obviously has not
been to the Western Australian Museum in recent times —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Members!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : — and has no idea about the role —
Mr
B.S. Wyatt : We knew there was a debt problem then!
The
SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park!
Mr
J.H.D. DAY : The Leader of the Opposition clearly has no idea about the role
of contemporary museums in not only cultural preservation and presentation, but
also in relation to the education of children, and adults for that matter, and
also in relation to scientific research, particularly for natural history in Western
Australia and Western Australia's biodiversity. The preferred
respondent nomination consortium at the moment, as I said, is Brookfield
Multiplex, together with the international architecture company from Holland,
OMA. OMA has a very strong international reputation and has been responsible
for other major projects such as Seattle Public Library, Qatar National
Library, the striking China Central Television building in Beijing and the
expansion of the fine arts museum in Quebec. OMA will be working with Hassell,
which is a local Australian architecture company that has completed many
projects in China, South-East Asia and the United Kingdom, and, closer to home,
the one40William project and Brookfield Place in Perth city centre. The reserve
respondent is a consortium led by Doric, with the French architecture company
Ateliers Jean Nouvel, working together with local architects. That consortium
also put in a very strong proposal, particularly in design terms, but we needed
to make a decision on one consortium and that has now been determined.
Negotiations over the next four to six weeks will finalise the details,
including the design, and then we will be able to get on with delivering this
much-needed new facility, which will be a wonderful centre for Western Australians,
young and old, and for visitors to the state to visit from 2020.
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