Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

Since they are both going to speak and have important things to say, I myself will try to be brief. That, however, is not easy as they are both (if I may put it this way) intellectual heavyweights, the like of whom we seldom see in the Gallery, and there is much that could be said about each of them. Indeed, each one deserves a speech to himself. Mr Wells is a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. He has been a Lecturer in Philosophy in the United Kingdom and in Queensland, and he has written a number of books, including The Wit ofWhit/am. He is co-author of another with the intriguing title The Reproduction Revolution, the subject matter of which, you may be disappointed to learn, has more to do with Malthus and J.S. Mackenzie than with Madonna and A.C. McKinsey. In 1983, at the early age of thirty-four, he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives and then, three years later, to the Queensland Parliament. He has been Attorney-General since 1989 and has just taken over the Justice and the Arts portfolios. Going back to his beginnings, it is significant, in terms of the Triennial itself and the Gallery's own growing interest in Japanese art, that Mr Wells was born in Hiroshima. Mr Hamill is also a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and an MA, and he was the University of Queensland's Rhodes Scholar in 1979. He, too, has been a University Lecturer, in this case in Political Science. He became a State Member in the same year as Mr Wells became a Federal Member, at the even earlier age of twenty-six. He, too, has been a Minister since 1989. They are certainly a distinguished pair. An intellectual match race between them at weight for age would be a close run thing indeed, and I would not presume to forecast the result. But this I can say, as an intellectual quinella they would be unbeatable in any Parliamentary race in Australia. Before I hand over to Mr Wells, I should just like to say how delighted we in the Gallery are that he has become our new Minister. He now has three portfolios and will carry heavy responsibilities. As Minister for Justice he will need both hands to hold steady those great and symbolic scales, and as Attorney-General he will, like Atlas, have the weight of the heavens on his shoulders-if not the whole of the heavens at least that part of them under which the State of Queensland lies. But now, whenever his two legal burdens look like becoming intolerable, he will, in his other portfolio, be able to turn for consolation to the nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, the Muses of literature, science and all the arts. I can assure him that he will find them all stimulating and delightful companions. And now it gives me great pleasure to call upon Mr Wells to address us. 9 Speech at the national media announcement of the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 4 December 1992 The Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, which is being launched today, will be a landmark event in the history of the Queensland Art Gallery. I am delighted that 30