George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, I have to correct you again: it was an offset. The money is available to the same organisations if they want to apply for it. But I am told that one of the arts companies that came to Parliament House today, this one I did not meet with, is a theatre company called Red Stitch, whose patron is Mr Anthony Adair. This is what Mr Anthony Adair wrote in the magazine Policy some years ago, 'The concept of peer group assessment is seriously flawed.' He went on to say, 'Control over funding for the arts should rest with the elected politicians and not with the Australia Council.'

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—

It is a representative of one of the organisations that you have instanced. I do not necessarily agree with that sentiment; I think most of the funding should go through the Australia Council and 87 per cent of it—