Arts Minister Senator Mitch Fifield spoke at the opening of the National Visual Art Education Conference: "Obviously there is inherent value in art. There is inherent value in the creative process. But the arts does provide students with the capacity and the tools and the mechanisms to understand the world around them. To interpret the world around them. And to express what it is that they feel and what they see. And these are skills for life."

http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/mitch_fifield/speeches/opening_address_to_the_national_visual_art_education_conference_national_gallery_of_australia,_canberra#.VqqlqPl96ih