As a Harrison Ward Councillor representing the ward with the highest population, people speak regularly with me about the need for more community meeting, festivals and events spaces.

Of course, Council is not the only provider of festivals and events and so it would not be sensible for Council alone to spend tens of millions of dollars every year to meet what is a wide community need.

I will come back to the issue of the current high levels of use of Council’s community meeting and events spaces in a moment.

I’d like to first acknowledge that this is the first time we’ve ever had such an important Festival and Events Framework.

Given the broad range of community and economic benefits for the City, it is no surprise that community support for festivals and events is so strong.

Mr Mayor, I have been advocating for better planning and provision of community meeting and event spaces as one part of this framework since before being elected to Council, and certainly more actively since.

It’s no secret that we can’t build community centres quickly enough to keep pace with the growth we are experiencing, nor can we retrofit existing facilities as quickly as we would like. This is because the Council has so many calls on its budget across a whole range of essential services.

Nevertheless, I am pleased that this framework will ensure we have better information and data on current and future use including unmet need so we can consider this when making future decisions about community meeting and event spaces.

I am also pleased that the framework will allow us to better masterplan and find partnerships with other partners to provide these facilities in the future.

I fully support the proposed Year 1 and Year 2 Actions 3.1 through to 3.9, as they allow us to map larger event precincts and spaces to determine gaps, opportunities and investment required for delivering the Festival and Events Framework objectives

I am also looking forward to making more informed decisions in the future about where it is best to invest ourselves and/or partner with others. People in the Harrison Ward are wanting to engage with their communities more and more and the more we plan for future needs and how we can address unmet demand, the better Mr Mayor.

I encourage the community to provide us with comments and suggestions on the Framework over the next month.