$10m TMAG bill attacked
THE Tasmanian Government is under fire for spending $10 million on designing the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery redevelopment when there is no guarantee the work will go ahead.
The $200 million proposal still requires funding of $170 million to proceed.
The grand plans for the works revealed exclusively in theMercury yesterday were officially unveiled yesterday, complete with a hi-tech virtual walk-through of the proposed buildings.
The redevelopment would double the amount of exhibition space and quadruple the amount of undercover public space. It was designed to bring Australia's most significant collection of historic buildings together under one roof. But the project can not be completed until federal and philanthropic funding is secured to make up a $170 million funding shortfall.
About $5 million has already been spent on the design phase and that figure will double before work starts. The State Government has committed a total of $30 million to the project and the remaining two-thirds will fund stage one of the works, due for completion by 2012.
Arts Minister David O'Byrne said he was confident the Federal Government would see the project as a worthwhile investment, although "we are mindful that it might take a number of budget cycles". "This is a long-term vision for Tasmania that will have an impact for generations," Mr O'Byrne said. "We will be talking to the Government at each opportunity and making sure that they know they can invest in a site that is significant to all Tasmanians." He said $10 million was an appropriate amount of money to spend on planning a project of this size.
But Opposition Leader Will Hodgman said there was little to show for the significant amount of money spent. "All Labor has managed is a $10 million plan without the financial commitment to realise it," he said. Mr Hodgman said the project had blown out more than six times the original $30 million commitment in 2006.
Sydney-based architectural firm Francis Jones Morehen Thorpe and consultants have been the major beneficiaries of the money spent so far.
TMAG director Bill Bleathman said the large number of historically significant sites incorporated in the redevelopment made the planning process extremely complicated. "It is better to get it right in the planning stages," Mr Bleathman said. He said the new gallery would attract major exhibitions. The museum was already working on future collaborations with MONA and other art galleries that would be an asset to the state.
Latest Comments:
I despair with what is happening at state level with funding decisions. At a time when our health system is crying out for funds, Premier Lara Giddings is quite happy to throw bucket loads of taxpayer money at football, motorsport and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery ($30M).This week Premier Giddings, refused to even meet to talk with the Chairman of Eskleigh Foundation about her refusal to give Eskleigh the vital $123,000 it needs to keep its nursing home for disabled people, full. Three beds are empty, and there is a long queue of patients occupying acute hospital beds, desperately waiting to transfer to Eskleigh. The savings to the hospitals budget is a staggering $1,621,000.Eskleigh has been working across this state for over 60 years, caring and accommodating adults with disabilities. Eskleigh is a charitable not-for-profit organisation that the Premier is accusing of pocketting profits at the expense of the taxpayer. PROFITS? Who pays for buildings Premier? Not your government! What's the problem Premier. This decision is a no-brainer. Whilst Minister O'Connor is defending stupid arguments about her unpaid personal parking fines, the State is going to ruin. I join the many voices for the State to FUND ESKLEIGH FIRST.
Posted by: Lorenzo Ion of Hobart 10:17am Sunday
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