00:01This has been a highly anticipated opening.
00:04It's taken seven years to get to this point, four years of actual construction
00:08and thousands of people are coming here. We've had the first lot
00:11of people come in for the opening day with the ribbon cutting ceremony
00:16we had some young students officially open the Powerhouse Museum
00:19here and alongside this people are here to see the opening
00:24exhibitions. There are five major exhibits on. One of them is ticketed
00:27but the rest are free. It spans from aviation to space
00:31children's bedtime stories, First Nations water culture
00:35all sorts of exhibitions on here and that's going to kick off the next 23 days
00:40opening festival with all sorts of shows and
00:43performances on here. Certainly looks fun there but it hasn't been
00:47smooth sailing to get to this point. Can you give us a sense of the current investigation
00:51that's happening? That's right. This has been
00:56an exciting thing to come to but it has been a difficult
01:01situation with a lot of
01:02controversy coming up. In August
01:04the CEO of the Powerhouse, Lisa Havilah
01:06was stood down amid an ongoing
01:08government investigation into issues
01:10surrounding allegations of misconduct
01:12in government and procurement.
01:14Now those investigations started
01:16in 2025 and they are still
01:18ongoing. Speaking to 7.30
01:20last week, Lisa Havilah's
01:22spokesperson said that she denies
01:24any wrongdoing and believes she acted
01:26with complete integrity. Now the
01:28Arts Minister, John Graham,
01:30he has acknowledged her contributions.
01:33She did lead this project for the past
01:35seven years and we spoke to him
01:36earlier and here is what he said.
01:38This has certainly been a heavily
01:40debated project. It's crossed more than a decade.
01:42It's crossed over governance.
01:44It's had more twists and turns than a roller derby
01:46along the way but the result
01:48is a good one. In terms of that
01:50investigation,
01:52it is being conducted at the
01:54moment. It's yet to conclude.
01:56So I don't want to speculate
01:58about the conclusion
02:00but it has led to
02:02a number of Powerhouse executives
02:04standing aside. I really
02:06do want to thank the team who's delivered this
02:08including Lisa Havilah
02:10whose vision we've really seen come to life here
02:12in Parramatta.
02:15Despite these
02:16controversies, however,
02:18there's still that excitement leading up
02:20to the opening. As you can see, so many people have
02:22turned out and across this opening weekend
02:2422,000 people are expected to
02:26come through these doors and thousands more
02:27as the opening festival continues into late
02:30this month.
