Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to highlight the importance of the Australian arts sector to our economy, our community and our national identity. I thank the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts for their report, entitled Sculpting a national cultural plan: igniting a post-COVID economy for the arts. I extend a special thanks to the member for Mallee, for her work this year in chairing this inquiry, and to the member for Lyne, for his work over the two years prior. I'd like to acknowledge the member for Moncrieff, for her extraordinary contribution because of her personal and professional experience in the arts, alongside the secretariat, who have enthusiastically supported us and overseen the development of informed and specific recommendations to help the arts sector and its success.

Support for the arts is not only a cultural imperative; it's an economic one. Australia's artistic output gives enormous value to our society, enriching our lives and creating an economic boost from domestic and international spending. The arts is a broad industry with a range of skills and talents, making up a rich landscape of creative artists and workers.

Engaging with Australia's creative and cultural industries and institutions has proven benefits for mental health and physical health, social cohesion and community building, creative thinking, problem-solving skills, and more. The benefits which flow from a healthy arts industry have never been needed more keenly than right now, as Australia emerges from living with the COVID public health emergency. Astonishingly, the creative and cultural sector contributed $112 billion—that's 6.4 per cent of GDP—to Australia's economy in the 2016-17 financial year. But the value of the arts cannot be reduced to a dollar figure. It is the quality and significance of the creative work that is of importance. The arts weave into our lives each and every day, almost without our knowing it, whether it's a moving film, a beautifully designed building or simply an elegant teacup. The arts stimulate our mind and our imagination. The arts provide everyday lives with moments of beauty.

These last two years have resulted in a great impost on the arts. The restrictions imposed by COVID have been incredibly painful, and all this at a time when we've needed the arts more than ever to help us through the crisis. In my electorate of Higgins, museums, festivals and libraries have all closed. Clubs and pubs—the thriving venues for bands, comedians and other performers—remain shut. Theatres are empty. This all leaves a big gap in the lives and hearts of our community and has a major impact on the bottom line of those businesses. Those local businesses have told me how grateful they have been for JobKeeper for the local employees but also for the significant investment by the Morrison government in the creative and cultural industries to help them through COVID.

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet with A New Approach—a new independent think tank advocating for the Australian arts and culture sector. Chair of A New Approach's reference group, Mr Rupert Myer AO, together with program director, Kate Fielding, highlighted the unique challenges facing the arts sector, particularly in light of the emerging COVID crisis. Following our meeting, as a member of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, I advocated for the need for an inquiry into the impacts of COVID-19 on the arts and how we, as a government, may ensure that our cultural identity not only thrives but prospers. Announced in August last year, the standing committee commenced a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's creative and cultural industries and institutions—including, but not limited to, Indigenous, regional, rural and community-based organisations. The inquiry wanted to make sure that front and centre were the grassroots organisations that feed our creative and cultural industries.

The inquiry considered the direct and indirect economic benefits and employment opportunities of the creative industries as well as the non-economic benefits of enhanced community social wellbeing and national identity. Moreover, the inquiry encouraged innovation to increase access and opportunities within the sector and, particularly, cooperation between the layers of government. We heard how the state and territory governments, local councils and the federal government all provide funding but that sometimes it can be difficult for people in the sector to navigate who funds what, when and where.

I'd like to thank so many local arts organisations that provided feedback to me during the inquiry about how COVID had affected them and their vision for the future of the arts. In particular, I'd like to thank the CEO of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Simon Abrahams; the director of the Duldig Studio and its founder, Eva Duldig; Todd Patrick from Patrick School of the Arts; Mike and Nathan Harrison-Lamond from Firehouse Theatre; and Alan Jin from Muso, which is a fantastic new company that has initiated the rise of the pub gig, aimed at revitalising the gig industry with over 100 venues that are going to put on more than 500 gigs in the post-COVID recovery. I'd like to thank all the other artists and cultural organisations who approached me and thank them for their support and the very important information they provided.

The committee made numerous recommendations towards ensuring that the post-COVID economy for the arts will be strong and vibrant. These 22 recommendations serve to ensure that the arts sector is held in the highest esteem and is front and centre for a strong economic recovery as a future key industry within Australia. I would like to highlight a number of these recommendations. The first one is recommendation 1, which is the development of a national cultural plan to assess the medium- and long-term requirements of the sector in light of the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19. I believe that this is akin to what has happened for the sports sector, with Sport 2030 providing a national plan that brings together the different sectors and provides strategic intent. We know that participants in arts sector work very well together, but I would like to see better cooperation across the different levels of funding—federal, states and territories and local government—and I would like to see better coordination between regional sectors, grassroots community sectors and other city based major institutions.

Recommendation 2 supports this by suggesting liaison between all levels of government together to develop and administer strategies to grow cultural and creative industries, moreover encouraging the Commonwealth government to work with the Productivity Commission to remove red tape barring all levels of government from enacting artistic programs. Recommendation 3 is a very important recommendation because it seeks to create a national centre of Indigenous culture and arts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to ensure that Indigenous communities and bodies are represented in this way. I'd also like to mention the creation of an app that contains information regarding current artistic and cultural events in consultation with peak tourism and government bodies. We all know how helpful it can be for people to have an easy entry point to find this information. In fact, there's a plethora of these sort of app, which are flourishing. They're making it much easier for people to access information, and I really encourage pursuing this recommendation.

There are two more I particularly like and would like to note in our set of recommendations. The first one is a local artistic champions program that will see young and up-and-coming artists, musicians, authors, filmmakers and more have access to grants to support the development of their artistic abilities, whether by attending competitions or by undertaking further courses. Such a program would be akin to the existing and highly successful Local Sporting Champions program, which I know every member of parliament in this place knows, supports and cherishes. Another of the very useful and practical recommendations is the establishment of a musical access assistance program that will help students in low socio-economic, rural, and regional areas to get greater access to musical studies. I have certainly been supporting local grants in my electorate of Higgins to support musical studies.

Lastly, I'd like to note that the recommendations include that we think that 'the arts' should again be included in the title of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. That's where it belongs, and I think this sector would be happy to see it reinstated. I also note that we believe the government should provide a progress report, to be delivered by December 2022, on our recommendations. In closing I would like to say that the benefit from the creative thinking and physical activity we experience when we engage with the arts is more important now than ever.

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