Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am honoured to speak on this bill, the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill. Most of us in this building have some connection to the arts within our community. We certainly have consumers of the arts; that's something that's important to all of us. For those of you who have been to the Speaker's office, there are two Sydney Nolan paintings there, the Ned Kelly paintings. They were painted at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, in my electorate. I've told the Speaker that he should be very careful; that shows a bias to Menzies! He assured me that he will never show a bias for the member for Menzies! I trust him on that.

We've heard that this is the first of a series of bills that will support the implementation of the government's national cultural policy. The coalition does acknowledge this is a continuation of coalition policy. In fact it is a rebranding exercise. At its foundation, it comes from the national cultural policy, Revive, which was announced on 30 January of this year, that being a five-year plan for the arts. We're often told in the chamber about all of the bad things that happened under the previous government. I understand that. Maybe there's a statute of limitations on when that will stop, but it still happens. So let me indulge in some achievements in this area from the previous coalition government.

There was a $50 million Temporary Interruption Fund provided directly to screen producers. In 2020 and 2021, there was more than $370 million invested in Australian local content through the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Screen Australia, the production offset and the post-digital visual effects offset. That producer offset for television content was raised by the coalition government from 20 per cent to 30 per cent, meaning Australian producers receive a greater rebate, making producing film and television content in Australia more attractive and more affordable.

The coalition invested more than $47 million to digitise and preserve collection material held by the National Film and Sound Archive, the NFSA, and seven other national collecting institutions. The coalition also provided funding to maintain the National Library of Australia's Trove website.

The Creative Economy COVID-19 support package was made up of nine measures across 2020 and 2021, and now stands at over $500 million. That was desperately needed. No-one claims that COVID hit each sector of the economy or society equally. It hit some much harder than others. The creative sector was hit particularly hard during COVID, for obvious reasons.

The coalition also invested $220 million for Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand Fund, the RISE Fund. That funded more than 541 projects occurring in more than 4,000 locations. There was a $53½ million Arts Sustainability Fund through COVID, which was designed to systematically support important arts organisations through the pandemic downturn. So far, it has supported 16 leading arts organisations across Australia for $51½ million. There was $40 million to the charity Support Act for immediate crisis relief to artists, crew, music and live performance workers across the country.

There was $20 million allocated to supporting cinemas in their retention and survivability. There was a fund to provide business continuity and support to independent cinemas in particular. A lot of those independent cinemas are family run, and they have enough pressures as it is from most families who have Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+ accounts and probably go to the cinema less. But when you do go, to an independent cinema in particular, you're reminded what a nice experience it is, particularly for children to go with their parents.

There was also $21½ million for regional arts, including $11.4 million to support arts and cultural development tourism experiences. There was $12 million to support Indigenous art centres and Indigenous art fairs in regional and remote Australia, and that was delivered in full. There was $540 million over the seven years to 2026-27 through the location incentive to attract domestic and international film and television productions to Australia. All of this was on top of recurrent funding provided to the Australia Council which stands at around $220 million a year, $260 million for the national collecting institutions and over $80 million for Screen Australia. So the coalition is proud of its commitment and support to the arts sector, and that should be acknowledged. Even though the members here on this side weren't actually part of that government, we are proud of the achievements.

There is a risk at the moment that we're really adding more bureaucracy rather than more support. Some of the bureaucracies that are being created are the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, Music Australia, Writers Australia and the First Nations body. These bodies will be critical in building partnerships, and their expertise will be important, but we do have to question whether this is more funding for middle management and not really more funding for the frontline arts sector, which needs it most.

I would like to speak about the cultural policy which was released this year. What the minister announced, we submit, fell a long way short of expectations. Much of what is adopted in this policy merely continues the arts policy direction pursued by the previous government. For example, the coalition worked to break down the division between the subsidised and commercial parts of the sector and to get more money to contemporary music, so it is good to see that similar proposals have been put into the policy. The coalition backed contemporary music strongly with over $68 million, which went to 170 projects involving contemporary music, from individual tours by artists like British India and Peking Duk to festivals like Bluesfest, Meadow music festival, and the Lost City under-18s music festival. I don't know who they are at all, but I'm sure they're very good bands that are very popular among people in Australia. Maybe I know the songs but I don't know who did them. I need Shazam to actually hear it.

The minister informed us that the policy includes a 30 per cent tax offset for digital games production in Australia, and I'd like to come to the importance of gaming as a cultural policy shortly. The COVID pandemic, as I said at the start, hit the sector particularly hard. It reminds us of the economic multiplier effect of the arts. If you go and see a show, you probably go to a bar, a cafe or a restaurant. You might stay overnight at a hotel. You might get a cab or an Uber or even take a flight to get to the show. That argument was key in seeing $220 million for RISE and hundreds of millions of dollars in other arts programs.

I'd like to briefly speak about video games. My 10-year-old son would be very proud of me for talking about video games, and not in the context that he should play less of them and Australians should play less of them! It's one of those things where there should be a healthy balance, of course, but we should acknowledge the importance of video games to our economy and to culture. It is important. Video games are talked about as having a cultural value in Australia, and we do measure that value in economic terms. In 2021 and 2022, it was $284.4 million, which was a 26 per cent increase on the previous year. Numerous jobs were created from that sector. Just like musicians, painters, writers and all other artists, videogame developers develop a practice through constant experimentation. Often, that work doesn't lead to an economic outcome, but, with so many practising the craft, some really hit the jackpot and capture the imagination of people throughout the world.

The sector took a particular hit in the 2008 global financial crisis, and it took many years to recover. In the early 2010s the Australian video game industry arguably hit rock bottom. Many businesses went under, many people lost their jobs and a lot of creative talent fled our shores. Despite all of this, since then, game developers in Australia have rebuilt the industry, and they deserve to be congratulated for what they have done. Australian games now regularly receive critical acclaim around the world, including Untitled Goose Game, Paperbark, Unpacking, Frog Detective and Cult of the Lamb. Slowly, Australia has caught up, and so both state and federal governments have introduced more funding and tax offsets for cultural institutions like the National Film and Sound Archive and Sydney's Powerhouse. And it's important that games did appear in the national cultural policy.

Their ability to make money is obvious to all. They are inherently youthful and, for some people who like them, quite cool. And games can have a complex role to play in development. It can be negative. We've heard about the concerns that many parents have about games like Fortnite, and they want to make sure that younger children in particular are in a safe environment, are not there for too long and are not being bullied online. That's very important. But there are roles for games that are creative and encourage learning. They are becoming more sophisticated. They're engaging with other professions, like psychologists and teachers, and that should be encouraged and supported—because there's no linear path to success in the arts or indeed in video games.

So we do support the video games sector and we congratulate the government on including that in the national cultural policy.

I conclude with one final observation, about the idea of a poet laureate. Henry VII appointed the first United Kingdom poet laureate—I think it was John Dryden—and it was an honorary 10-year appointment, and that has continued. The United States has had a poet laureate appointed since 1937. They're appointed by the Librarian of Congress. Australia actually has had one poet laureate. Lachlan Macquarie appointed Michael Massey Robinson, our first and only poet laureate, in the early 19th century. His task was to write odes for royal birthdays, and he was paid in cows. With the establishment of an official poet laureate, I think we will be asking that person to do more than write odes for royal birthdays, and I hope that we pay them in more than just cows—although, with the price of cattle, that might be a pretty good deal if I was poet laureate!

Poetry is a very important part of culture and probably one of the oldest forms of culture, from humans sitting around fireplaces, telling stories and using words in a way that is creative and beautiful, and stirs the soul and our emotions. So I congratulate the government on establishing a poet laureate.

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