Talking Point: Cult of David and Mona must come to an end

GREG BARNS: THERE are other bright sparks around with ideas just as good as those of David Walsh.

Mona’s David Walsh, left, and, from left, Mona creative director Leigh Carmichael, State Growth Minister Matthew Groom and Tasmanian Aboriginal writer Greg Lehmann at Macquarie Point for the announcement of Mona’s plans for the waterfront site. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

WHEN Mona opened in January 2011 the eminent Australian journalist and writer David Marr was chastised for his observation that “there is a bit of a cult of David on the promontory”.

How right he was and is.

When David Walsh and sidekick Leigh Carmichael recently revealed to this newspaper their plans for Macquarie Point the cult followers were out in force. David can do no wrong. He is a visionary. He and Carmichael are Hobart’s saviours.

Take these responses from the ABC Hobart Facebook page as examples of the cult Marr identified. There is “Confident with anything MONA does,” and “Whatever the marvellous man wants, let him do it” and many other comments like it.

Mona founder David Walsh. Picture: MATTHEW NEWTON

What Walsh and Carmichael have done is get their hands on $240,000 of taxpayer funds gifted by the Macquarie Point bureaucrats and board. Are there no other designers, architects and the like with any good ideas? Extraordinary stuff. Who else gets paid by the taxpayer to essentially say what they want, write what they like, design anything they feel is cool? Are there any more pots of government money for other designers, artists and their ilk or is the cult of David the reason for this irresponsible use of taxpayer funds?

Let’s stop here for another observation. The $240,000 taxpayer funds is the latest in a line of government grants given to this billionaire gambler and his organisation.

A news story from the ABC on January 29 this year said another of Walsh’s ventures, Dark MOFO, a festival, was getting $700,000 over the next three years from Hobart City Council, and $2.1 million from the Hodgman Government. It, and its Labor-Green predecessor, had previously given the festival $3 million since 2013. In June this year the Government announced $10.5 million funding for the next five years. That is about $16 million in subsidies from taxpayers for this event alone.

Then there is the summer festival MONA FOMA. It too boasts that one of two major partners is the Tasmanian Government. And the cult of David appears to be alive and well when it comes to government handing out cash to Walsh’s events. An Audit Office report published last month shows funding decisions for Dark MOFO and MONA FOMA were not subject to pre-funding qualitative or quantitative evaluation nor was any risk identification and management exercise done before handing over the cash. By the way there is no criticism of Walsh and Mona in this regard.

So the picture one gets of Mona and Walsh is that far from being rebellious naughty types the marketing portrays, they are savvy in the politics of government funding.

As for the Macquarie Point dream, the media swallowed the spin that the idea of an indigenous reconciliation theme as a centrepoint was original, but it is not the case.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Barangaroo on the shores of Sydney Harbour went further than the Walsh and Carmichael idea. It restored the land formation to the state it was in when Europeans invaded in 1788. And in July this year a Tasmanian architect Tim Penny said Mr Keating was the man to lead the Macquarie Point vision. This columnist said similar things and in fact proposed a much greater input from indigenous Tasmanians.

Walsh and Carmichael’s call for a light-rail system to link Macquarie Point with the northern suburbs would also be a convenient way to move patrons from downtown Hobart to Mona.

The cult of David and Mona is dangerous. Walsh has some fine ideas and his Mona is a fine building with some art of real value. His festivals are popular, but there many other superb designers, thinkers and art types in Tasmania and beyond with something to offer Macquarie Point and the arts and culture offerings in this state. Walsh is not a god and nor are his acolytes.

If Walsh was in Melbourne or Sydney he would be one of a number of clever types pushing ideas and projects. The cult of David needs to end and Tasmania grow up.

Lawyer Greg Barns was an adviser to NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner and the Howard government. Disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Denison in 2002, he joined the Democrats. In 2013, he was WikiLeaks Party adviser.