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For parents who are blind or have low vision like me, though, there was often a little complaint “Dad, your braille-reading hands are covering the pictures”.

Dad's time with their daughters is special time, and I spent the afternoon last weekend watching a chickflick with Rachel. For me, the first five minutes consisted of the sound of waves on a beach, seagullls, the slam of a car door, and someone crying. In fact, the whole movie was a fine demonstration that there is much more to communication than speech.

About six weeks ago I had a dream in which I was about to give this presentation. As I was walking up to the lectern, I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to include anything about the National Arts and Disability Strategy. Not only had I forgotten to include it in my notes, but I couldn't remember a single thing about it. I started to imagine boos and hisses from the audience, projectile tomatoes, and (the presenter's worst nightmare) loud snores. But then, in the dream, I somehow knew that I could end it all by waking myself up. And that's what I did.

It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it .....

Take a piece of canvas, some chicken wire, paint and plastic, and put them together so that they resemble a potato cooked in its jacket. Mount the whole thing on a block of wood, add a label that says "baked potato with butter" and what have you got? You've got a famous example of Pop Art. The collector who bought it is alleged to have remarked, "pop is the art of today, tomorrow and all the future". Human nature being what it is, I imagine they said much the same thing after they'd put the final touches to those prehistoric cave paintings.

George Bernard Shaw once said that the only alternative to torture in life is art. I'm not sure that you could my presentation this morning art, but I do hope it isn't torture.

Allow me to begin by also acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.