Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

The appalling slogan, 'Yo-way to go', designed to promote Queensland, has, I am glad to say, been emphatically rejected, but nothing worthwhile has yet been put in its place. Surely, for the fastest growing State in Australia, an emphasis on art and culture is the answer. For this approach, the Minister has already signalled his support. In a recent interview with Tess Livingstone in the State Politics column of the Sunday Mail, he said: Queensland previously had something of a frontier image, but it is set to become Australia's second State in terms of population and economic importance and we must develop a cultural life that matches that status. May I suggest that this Van Gogh exhibition should act as the catalyst for a decision to add to the Gallery a new building which will combine the proportions of Palladio, the excitement of Utzon, and the sense of purpose of our own Robin Gibson, as the best possible way to usher in the twenty-first century.' The man who commissions it, whoever he may be, will then be able to say, with justifiable pride, what a Roman poet said 2 000 years ago, and what a French President is, I suspect, saying today: 'exegi monumentum aere perennius'-'I have raised a monument more lasting than bronze'. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to ask the Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Dean Wells, to address us. 22 Speech to introduce M. Philippe Baude, Ambassador for France, at the opening of 'J'aime la France', I I May 1994 NOTE: THIS EXHIBITION OF FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHY CONSISTED OF I00 BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT. SHOWN FROM 11 MAY TO I O JULY, IT WAS ALSO PRESENTED AT THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND THE ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. SPONSORED BY LOUIS VUITTON, THE EXHIBITION WAS ORGANISED BY THE MISSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC HERITAGE (MINISTRY OF CULTURE, FRANCE), THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC HERITAGE AND THE FRIENDS OF JACQUES-HENRI LARTIGUE ASSOCIATION. IT WAS PRESENTED AS A FRENCH GOVERNMENT CULTURAL PROJECT. We are fortunate, indeed, that the French Ambassador, Monsieur Philippe Baude, has agreed to open this exhibition of photographs, 'J'aime la France', for he is a man of unusual talents and distinction, even in the talented and distinguished profession of diplomacy. He has served his country for more than thirty years in places as diverse as Helsinki and Dacca, Hanoi and Amman, Stockholm and Vanuatu, Bangkok and Ankara. He is a remarkable linguist with knowledge of five European languages and three more exotic ones, who can even carry on a conversation with my wife in her native Lithuanian which, regrettably, is more than I can do. He is a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and an Officier de l'Ordre du Merite. His wife, Madame Baude, is a silversmith and a jeweller of international renown and, as we are so often told these days, a successful man needs an able woman behind him, indeed some would say a few paces ahead of him. 90