Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to put on the record the concerns of thousands of Tasmanians alarmed at the news that a treasured state institution, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), is facing job losses as part of the Rockliff government’s austerity budget cuts.
TMAG sits within Building Tasmania, slated to suffer $264 million worth of cuts over the forward Estimates: $21 million this year, almost $75 million in the next, $79.5 million in 2028‑29 and increasing to $88.5 million at the end of the forward Estimates. This is a massive hit for any department and we’re yet to see how the transition to a new structure will play out. From all reports, it’s currently pretty chaotic and uncertain within the department, and TMAG is case in point.
It’s reported that TMAG staff have been told that the institution will lose almost 20 full‑time equivalent positions, reportedly 30 per cent of its current workforce. The Building Tasmania Acting Secretary has confirmed to the CPSU that TMAG will suffer some form of cuts, and I quote:
The Government’s target FTE reduction for Building Tasmania applies across all Building Tasmania divisions and functions, including TMAG.
TMAG is a critically important institution that holds some of Lutruwita/Tasmania’s past, makes an immense contribution to our present and must have a viable presence into our future. Holding a collection of over 1 million objects spanning art, history and natural sciences, TMAG is the institution charged with storage, maintenance, analysis, display and education across its collection – the state collection.
Headquartered in a heritage listed building in central Hobart, TMAG plays a hugely significant role within the tourism sector. Tourists, together with locals, are attracted to permanent and temporary exhibitions to the tune of hundreds of thousands per year, both physically and online. Indeed, last year’s budget details what seem heroic growth aspirations for visitation to TMAG. Despite reducing staffing, budget paper no. 4 articulates an expected extra 8000 visitors last financial year and 10,000 this year.
It’s important to understand that TMAG’s front‑of‑house and administrative staff are not the only workers we need to be mindful of in this debate. The Friends of TMAG write:
Natural science collections cannot be mothballed; they need active management otherwise they deteriorate. TMAG has a legal obligation through its constitution to maintain and manage the state collections. It can’t do that without the people on the ground with the necessary skills, including the curators and collection managers.
In summary, TMAG is a statutory authority and instrumentality of the Crown, albeit one administered through a state department and must not be included in this round of government cuts at all.
This is an institution that has responsibility few of us understand; delicate, complicated responsibilities like conserving and restoring artworks, managing unstable items and educating people from preschool to the third age.
Natalie Jones, assistant general secretary of the CPSU, wrote to the minister two days ago, and she wrote:
The decision to abolish positions cannot be separated from services being lost. Fewer workers will inevitably mean less capacity to care for collections, deliver exhibitions and education programs, support research and maintain public access.
In recent times, the entire Bond Store has been closed due to staffing shortages, which involves preventing public access to three galleries, including the first people’s history gallery.
The Rockliff government’s cuts across the public service are a problem for anyone reliant on services that meet contemporary expectations. Current services are already failing. But their impact on the arts sector, be it Screen Tas or now TMAG, threaten to cripple creativity, stifle knowledge and degrade the great reputation of an institution that has its origins in the 1840s.
This has personal impacts, too. There would be people, long‑time employees who are ready to retire, who now fill sole or limited positions in their field, too afraid to leave, especially via redundancy, because of their commitment to the organisation and trade. They don’t want to see that position abolished because it’s a critical function of a museum and art gallery with a serious commitment to its collection.
I asked a question of the minister this week, seeking clarity on which, if any, positions within TMAG are quarantined from abolishment. We and many others look forward to the response.
Many of us have memories of TMAG that hark back to primary school. It’s a central stitch in our cultural, historic and artistic fabric and an important part of Hobart and Tasmania’s economic framework. It simply cannot have its capacity reduced. To do so will diminish us all.
