Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

Our new Premier has been so much in the limelight recently that he scarcely needs any introduction. Suffice it to say that he is a remarkable man. Despite his comparative youth, he is one of the longest serving members of Parliament, having been d!ere for almost twenty years. For the last seven he has been a Cabinet Minister, holding in turn the portfolios of Primary Industry, Industry, Small Business and Technology, and Health and Environment, and he has left his individual mark on each one of them. Now he has the most exacting job of all, and the future of Queensland lies in his hands. It is greatly to his credit that he has chosen to add a portfolio concerned with the quality of life to those concerned with the standard of living. We wish him well in the great task he has imposed upon himself of making the State of Queensland an even better place in which to live, and we look forward to a close and mutually rewarding relationship between him and the Gallery. It gives me very great pleasure indeed to ask the Premier, Treasurer and Minister for the Arts to open the exhibition, 'Journeys North'. 2 Speech to introduce Mr Roger Allen, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Computer Power Group, Mrs Lyn Williams, and Sir Edward Williams, KCMG,KBE to open the Fred Williams retrospective exhibition, 24 November 1988 NOTE: THIS EXHIBITION, PRESENTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL GALLERY, WAS THE LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WORK OF ONE ARTIST ASSEMBLED TO THAT TIME IN AUSTRALIA. IT OCCUPIED A THIRD OF THE GALLERY'S DISPLAY SPACES, WAS SHOWN FROM 25 NOVEMBER 1988 TO 12 FEBRUARY 1989 AND WAS SPONSORED BY COMPUTER POWER GROUP LTD. It is my pleasant task this evening to welcome all of you to the Gallery and to introduce the distinguished guests who are here today, some of whom are sitting with me and who will shortly be addressing you. The Gallery is pleased that so many have been able to accept our invitations to a morning opening-a time not perhaps convenient for the workers of the world-to this launching of the retrospective exhibition of Fred Williams's work. I am especially glad to welcome the representatives of the media. Now that this very special year of the Expo and the Bicentenary is drawing to a close, I should like to take this opportunity to thank the ladies and gendemen of the press, radio and television for having taken such an interest in the activities of the Gallery and for having given them such good and well informed coverage throughout the year, in particular the series of great exhibitions that have been held here. That interest and that coverage have certainly attracted many more people to the Gallery than might otherwise have been the case and for that we are most appreciative. 59