More than 100 people have turned out to a public meeting opposing job cuts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), while almost 6,000 have signed a petition calling for the cuts to be stopped.
The meeting at the Waterside Pavilion at Mawson Place today was organised by the Friends of TMAG, which is fighting a reported state government plan to cut seven jobs.
Friends of TMAG board member and principal petitioner Ian Terry said the museum was already operating on a shoestring budget.
“With these cuts it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse,” he said.
Terry, a former senior curator at TMAG, said the group understands the cuts include two of the four curatorial positions at the Tasmanian Herbarium, including its head.
He said two zoology positions, covering invertebrates and vertebrates, would also be merged into one.
The museum’s librarian, graphic designer, photographer and an exhibitions officer are also expected to go.
“Without the designer, the photographer and the exhibitions officer, it becomes really hard to get those exhibitions up,” Terry said.
He said TMAG had a legal obligation to care for the state’s collection and losing professional staff could put that at risk.
Terry pointed to botanical specimens from Captain Cook’s 1777 voyage, which need constant monitoring for pests.
“If a moth or some insects get into that, that’s lost forever,” he said.
Terry said TMAG documents set a target to increase visitation by 6.4% over the next two years, despite its budget being cut by 27%.
He said the number of proposed job cuts had already fallen from as many as 20 to seven and hoped public pressure could stop the remaining cuts.
“We’d like to think we had some impact on that,” he said.
Former TMAG development manager Stephanie Carlin said the cuts could damage the confidence of donors who give artworks and other items to the museum.
“If they have something really special in their private collection that they would have given to TMAG, they would probably think that it’s not in safe hands,” she said.
Carlin believes there is “a very clear line” between funding for the Macquarie Point stadium and cuts to TMAG’s budget.
“The way in which the premier magicked up money for the stadium when every year TMAG was told that there was not money … it shows that this was a lie and that the money can be manifested if it’s important enough to the government,” she said.
“These cuts to the government, the cuts to funding, show to us that TMAG is not important and this government does not care about arts and culture and science.”
Greens MP and arts spokesperson Vica Bayley, who is sponsoring the petition, described TMAG as “a case study” of broader state budget cuts.
“Every single week we seem to have a rumour and then a confirmation of cuts,” he said.
Bayley said the government regularly promoted Tasmanian artists and culture as something special but was unwilling to invest in them.
“I think that’s a hypocrisy that also riles a lot of people up,” Bayley said.
Independent MLC Meg Webb plans to seek an upper house vote next month calling for an immediate freeze on the cuts and a review of the funding needed by TMAG and the Herbarium.
“If the Rockliff government fails to see common-sense and immediately call a halt to the proposed short-sighted and destructive cuts to our iconic TMAG and the Herbarium, then the parliament must intervene,” she said.
Webb, who sent a statement of support to the meeting, warned the cuts could leave TMAG unable to meet its legal obligations under at least nine state laws.
Speaking in Burnie, government minister Bridget Archer said the government had been “very clear and very transparent” about the need to right-size the public service.
She said it is important to have “a sustainable budget now and into the future” so the government can keep delivering essential services such as health and education.
Asked whether the cuts were helping pay for the stadium, Archer described the project as “an economic driver for Tasmania”.
“It is part of what is going to build and continue to build a stronger economy here in Tasmania so that we can continue to pay for those essential services that Tasmanians rightly rely on,” she said.
“I do think that linking this question all the time to the cost of one particular piece of infrastructure overlooks the fact that we are building a whole range of infrastructure projects right across the state.”
The petition, which also calls for greater investment in TMAG’s infrastructure, closes in late November before being tabled in parliament.
