MINISTER FOR THE ARTS, TONY BURKE: Thanks so much Ryan, what a pleasure to be joining you today on Ngunnawal Country and acknowledge the traditional owners, elders, ancestors. Welcome to Parliament House, to all of you, to Ryan, to you Nick, to all the members of the board. But very personally from Susan Templeman and myself, we are very grateful to have all of you here. You are all partners in an extraordinary national project called the National Gallery of Australia. 

Just one floor above in that corner is a portrait that is different to any of the other portraits of Prime Ministers, it's the one of Gough. And Gough used to make the claim when he was challenged on arts funding, that everything else we do in this building is a means to an end, but enjoyment of the arts is an end in itself. And in that, the concept of having a National Gallery predated Gough. There was already a collection going on. But the collection, in many ways, spoke to our respect for the Commonwealth more than it did speak to our ambition for Australia. 

Part of that ambition is being realised by the current board and the work that's currently happening in terms of the sharing of the collection. The sharing of the collection, and I'll say a bit more in a second, but the concept that this national collection won't only live in Canberra was itself not new. If you think before the gallery, the building itself, was established, works including Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles tour, they went around the country - not at that point getting great as they did, but the different works did move around the country. 

But the concept of a whole lot of the works that we had prior to that particular purchase were very much works that you'll see as some of the older works that we now house in Australia's Portrait Gallery. They did speak to a part of the story of Australia, but they did not speak at all to ambition or confidence - the works that now have found their way around. 

We have, for example, in Perth a small suburban gallery that used to get very small visitations, suddenly turns up 40 something Andy Warhol’s, including a life-size Elvis. Their visitation rates go through the roof. That's because of the National Gallery. But over there on the other side of our continent, you've had a huge impact that when those Andy Warhol works did come back here, forevermore there will be people who know about their local gallery who didn’t otherwise. 

Similar visitation changes have happened in between where, you know, rather audaciously they said, oh, you know, we wouldn't mind if you gave us a Monet. And Nick said, yeah, we've got a spare Monet. And that goes as one of the works that was there to, in many ways, to inspire Margaret Olley - that has been exhibited in the gallery where Margaret Olley’s home has been recreated and her own works surround. Once again, the concept of works, great works from around the world, speaking to ambition, speaking to creativity. 

The National Gallery itself did this this only a little while ago with the Cezanne exhibition where, what would have once been considered audacious, works with European masters side by side with Australian masters. Side by side works that, historically, did speak to each other but would never, in a gallery that lacked confidence, be hung side by side to each other. Many people and art historians would have been able to talk about the way they spoke to each other. But now anyone going through the gallery had the story presented directly to them. 

Let me take you on a quick walk. So, you know, now you arrive at the gallery. You used to see Broken Obelisk. Now, Broken Obelisk, the other Broken Obelisk’s are in New York, DC, LA and now in Nowra. But as you walk in now, instead of seeing Broken Obelisk, you see the magnificence, and only recently established, but the magnificence of what Lindy Lee has done with the Ouroboros. 

And it doesn't matter what time of day or night you drive past, there are people there taking photographs. And every time people visit there they see something slightly different. The wind will be blowing, it'll be a different time of day, they'll be standing at a different angle. There is a work that speaks to them in a new way every time. And whether the doors of the gallery are open or closed, the inspiration of the gallery is there for any Australian in the vicinity. 

And then you go through the doors and you go up the escalator. And immediately as you walk into the first room, on your right is a work by Archie Moore, winner of the Golden Lion, the most prestigious art award you can get. And there is his work, family tree, the work that inspired Kith and kin, there. 

And as you look at it and are just mesmerised by both the names but also the blank spaces, you turn around to find yourself walking through a river - walking through a river with the memorial that takes you on a deep journey of spirituality. And as you walk through you can't help but notice, as you go through the river, that on the left side of the river the ochre is different to the right side, the shapes of the memorials are different, the cultural traditions are different. 

And the reminder of the spirituality is there because the moment you, having walked through that river, you get into the next section of the gallery, all of a sudden there, on your left, is a 14th century spiritual painting. The spirituality of 14th century Europe reminding you that you've just been in a spiritual place before you got there as well. 

And then the moment you turn to walk down towards the next wall, you see work that is created because of the philanthropy and because of the inspiration and the determination of people in this room. Straight in front of you, have the new Koons, standing almost what feels like to the ceiling, a magnificent modern sculpture. 

And then as you go past - which wasn't in the gallery collection only a few years ago - on your left, you'll then see, and as every child knows the screen, you'll see a Munch, Man with Horse, right there. Delivered because of the inspiration and commitment of a philanthropist dedicated to the gallery. Of all the different things that I've had to sign off, because that one had to come past my desk, what a joy to think here is an Australian saying one of the greatest works, one of the great masters, we're entitled to have that here. We're not threatened by having that here. We're entitled to have that work here with us. 

What's beside it? Next one along, Water Lilies, Monet - the one we're not lending. And then one more along, Gauguin. Gauguin is the Prime Minister- when the Prime Minister opened that exhibition and talked about the commitment to recognising great work, of not getting in the business of cancelling to deny ourselves access to great art and the dinner that happened for those of us who were there that night, the beautiful words that were said by the academic who spoke from the Pacific, of saying that Gauguin is not of our culture, but he is forever part of our cultural landscape. And then you keep walking, and straight in front is the first of the Jackson Pollock’s. And immediately to the left is the one everyone knows, the Blue Poles. 

Now, when I signed the brief for the Munch, I signed in the spot where you meant to sign, at the bottom of the page. When Gough signed for Blue Poles, he got a Texta and scrawled all the way across the top of the brief, with pride about knowing the impression and the argument that was about to be created. And then wrote at the bottom, and released the price, knowing that the controversy would happen and not being afraid of it. Not being afraid of knowing that, as a nation, it was time to have the conversation. 

And for all the annoyance that was happening in Australia at the time, anyone who's read Tom McIlroy's book will know all too well, there was another controversy happening in the United States. How dare Australia be taking our cultural heritage? What we were doing was of international significance. And what we were doing was to be confident and unafraid - not simply unafraid of the value of art, but unafraid of thinking that what was considered one of the most valuable works in the period being created in the United States, that that wasn’t a threat to Australian creativity, it was an inspiration for further Australian creativity. And then one more to the left and there's Lee Krasner's abstract work, The Partner of Jackson Pollock. 

I've just walked only about 40 or 50 metres in that part of the conversation. That's a very small part of a magnificent National Gallery. When people talk about the National Gallery, sometimes in our own language, our language is too small. Because the genius of art will always, always go beyond the words that try to describe it. 

But let me simply say this, when you support the National Gallery, whether you support it as artists, as board members, as professionals who work at the Gallery, or as philanthropists who have a deep commitment to the work, understand that you are not simply supporting a great national institution, you are supporting a beacon. A beacon of Australian creativity and cultural confidence. There's so much to celebrate. 

Fifty years ago, they didn't know exactly where that creativity would go when the two houses were down at the bottom of the hill. But what they did know was they were making a decision of ambition. For 50 years, you have been part of that journey. Some of the people who started that journey are no longer with us, but that principle of ambition, that as a nation, we are unafraid of the greatest works, we will use them to inspire us. And we will respond with new works that draw on a heritage that goes back on this continent to the First Nations and stories from the first sunrise, and build it with every wave of immigration and creativity that has happened since. And with that level of ambition we celebrate not just the first 50 years but everything that's to come.

[Applause]