Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it's hard being an artist in Melbourne now—really hard. Aussie artists were the first to bear the brunt of COVID-19 restrictions. Social-distancing restrictions introduced in March meant no gigs, no exhibitions, no galleries, no musicals, no theatre productions and no comedy performances, and for many it meant no livelihood. Nearly 650,000 Australians work in the arts, and their job is a special one. It's not just a pay cheque; it's a vocation. It's a job that's meaningful to all of us. Australian artists tell our stories, and their tools are passion, empathy and connection, things that are more important to us during the pandemic than ever before and things that we will value more when we move beyond the current crisis. But, for hundreds of thousands of Australians, it's still a job. It's an income. It's food. It's the rent. It's tough to make ends meet working in the arts in Australia at the best of times, and it's difficult to think of worse times than now, which makes the motion before the House now all the more perverse and cruel.

Too many Australians are being left behind by the Morrison government. There's a new announcement every day, but they never deliver. This Prime Minister is there for the photo op but never there for the follow-up. The motion before the House is a classic example. For all the congratulations in this motion about the federal government's arts spending, when COVID-19 restrictions came into force in March of this year the Morrison government did nothing for the hundreds of thousands of Australian artists who'd lost their livelihoods. The Morrison government refused to listen to artists and arts organisations who told them about the difficulties that artists had in satisfying the eligibility criteria for JobKeeper payments. The Morrison government refused to listen to the state and territory arts ministers who, in a meeting with the arts minister in May, pushed for an expansion of eligibility for the JobKeeper package for Australian artists. The government refused to listen to Labor's calls for a dedicated arts sector support package. They did nothing for a hundred days.

It was only when public pressure became too much, when the reality of what was happening to Australian artists and their families became undeniable, that the Morrison government reluctantly responded. But, unfortunately, they responded in a way that is now all too typical: turn up for the announcement and go missing when it's time for delivery—the Greatest Showman for the media but an Ebenezer Scrooge for Australians in need. The Prime Minister put a lot of work into planning the media announcement for his arts relief package, which largely comprises concessional loans to major arts organisations. He rolled out desperate artists as props for the media, but, when the TV cameras stopped filming, he forgot about them once again. It was a further six weeks after the announcement of this relief package before guidelines were approved to allow the provision of less than half of the announced funds. To date, not a single dollar of federal government support for the arts sector through this package has gone to artists who need it. On the same day as that announcement, incidentally, the minister finally got around to releasing draft guidelines for live music grants that had been sitting on his desk for 18 months. Even worse, these guidelines provide that the government's emergency funding won't even begin to flow until November, and the minister has been unable even to guarantee that any of this funding will be provided this year. Just to underline it, this crisis and these social-distancing restrictions began in March, and Australian artists won't even begin to see targeted support until November at best.

Even worse, when Australian artists read the guidelines of the government's arts relief package, there were a few rude surprises—not least for Creative Productions, the Gold Coast production company who hosted the Prime Minister for his announcement only to discover weeks later when they read the fine print, which you always need to do when it comes to the Morrison government, that they were not even eligible for any of the programs that the Prime Minister had announced at their work site. When he saw the guidelines for the Prime Minister's arts relief package, Stephen Knight, the Creative Productions CFO, said:

The entire industry is being left for dead. If this continues, at the end of this pandemic you will have no production companies left to actually stage any events.

He wrote to the Prime Minister:

I just don't know if you are aware that our industry is simply dead right now.

Australian artists deserve better than a 'catch me if you can' Prime Minister, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of accountability through yet another media announcement or public distraction. Australian artists deserve a PM who will actually deliver for them in their time of need, a PM who respects the way they earn a living and will fight for it, a PM who doesn't put political ideology before helping Australian workers in need and a PM who sees the worth of their work for the nation now and after the pandemic.

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