Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

This budget includes a $235 million package to drive the implementation of Creative Australia—the National Cultural Policy. Creative Australia aims to ensure that the cultural sector, incorporating all aspects of the arts, heritage and the creative industries, has the skills, resources and resilience to play an active role in Australia's future. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor in the portfolio, the member for Hotham, for the work that he did in putting together Creative Australia.

Additional funding has been provided to the arts portfolio to ensure that the Australia Council can meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving artistic practice through provision of $75.3 million in new funding, including $15 per annum in additional funding for arts organisations to address unfunded excellence; $1.25 million per annum in funding to harness excellence in the major performing arts companies; $1 million per annum for training and development to build the professional capacity of the arts sector; $1 million per annum to develop and implement a detailed and systematic data collection program; establish a new funding program for the newly formed Creative Partnerships Australia at a cost of $8.6 million over two years; continuing training available to students through our elite arts training organisations through a provision of $20.8 million over four years; establish the arts ready program to address skills through targeted on-the-job training at a cost of $3.4 million over four years; provide $9.3 million over four years to six major performing arts companies to ensure they can continue to tell innovative and uniquely Australian stories; extend the existing Indigenous Languages Support program and enable funding to language projects based in the Torres Strait by providing an additional $14 million over four years; provide $11.3 million over four years to continue the successful Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program; continue the ArtStart program to assist recent arts graduates to grow their professional practice into a sustainable business at a cost of $9.7 million over four years; establish a digital content fund supporting Australian digital production at a cost of $10 million over four years; and ensure a one-off $20 million location incentive to increase Australia's competitiveness as a world-class filming destination.

As part of the $235 million package, funding was also provided through other portfolios to ensure $40 million in funding for cultural infrastructure, as parts of rounds 3 and 4 of the Regional Australia Development Fund, to continue the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project and to assist community groups that operate self-help radio retransmission facilities in regional and remote areas at a cost of $5.1 million over four years; provide $8 million over two years to establish the Creative Young Stars program to encourage, support and celebrate creative, cultural, academic and community achievement.

We are very proud to release Creative Australia and believe it provides a strong strategic framework for government investment in the arts, cultural heritage and creative industries, establishing a solid base for future growth and improved sustainability in the sector. The portfolio looks forward to implementing Creative Australia over the next 10 years.

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