Take the very new, very gorgeous, Melbourne Recital Centre. It’s cute as a button, nice acoustic, and well-received by its well-dressed and appreciative audiences (myself included of course). But hiring the spaces in there does not come cheap - I’ve heard it’s thousands. Lawd knows how much the Opera House spaces would cost.

I would support the Opera House’s redevelopment because of its architectural and cultural significance, but never because of any perceived benefit to Australian living culture which is far better articulated in small arts organisations.

(Of course if the Small Arts Organisation Decimination strategy initiated by OzCo, Arts Victoria and Arts NSW keeps going the way it’s heading, those pesky little arts organisations won’t be around anymore much longer anyway)

Quite so but is that figure of 18 metres correct? It was reported by ABC news with nair a vocal twitch.

Eighteen metres (almost 60 feet in the old measures) would put the floor of the hall below sea level and transfor the space into a sink hole not an auditorium.

I imagine that the funds come from bonds or a capital account, not from the normal budget. So it doesn’t necessarily mean the money is taken from the subsidies to arts groups’ operations, or anyone else’s.

A billion dollars is a hell of a lot of money, nevertheless. Last time I heard of this project, a year ago, the estimate was 800 million. Given how long it has taken to do 13 million dollars worth of renovations to the lobby (is that the right number), the place would re-open around 2040.

Oslo has just built a spiffing new opera house for about 400 million. Maybe it would be better to start over again at the north end of the Hungry Mile.

Meanwhile, what about the funding to actual artists and their companies in NSW? NSW has been freeloading on the Commonwealth arts budget for years. That takes care of the big companies. And it does a decreasing amount for the small companies. The operation of Arts NSW in 2008, because of the lack of support from the Minister and the government, was at a level of prize-winning incompetence. If any of its grantees were even a quarter as disorganised, it would probably ban them for life.