Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank everybody who's contributed to the discussion on the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023. Everyone's been supportive of the bill, and people have used the bill to talk more broadly about the cultural policy in Revive, and I want to thank members for that.

There are a couple of issues that I should raise in response to different contributions that have been made. The concerns that have raised about the collecting institutions have been heard loudly and clearly, and I respect the many members who have put those views forward. Decisions of government, hopefully, are not too far off in terms of being able to respond to that. It is true that both the money available for wages to pay staff and the money available to physically keep together the structures of our collective institutions—they have been underfunded for a long time, and a whole lot of decisions now are more difficult as a result of that. But those decisions of government, I think, are coming soon and certainly have to be made in time for the budget.

On the issue of historians with respect to the galleries, libraries and museums sector that was raised specifically by the member for Warringah, I put down that that particular objection was after we'd formed the first five panels—a panel for each pillar. It was at least in part addressed, when we put together the panel of seven that would look overarchingly at the policy, by making sure that Clare Wright, an extraordinary Australian historian, was a member of that and then co-wrote, with Christos Tsiolkas, the vision statement at the front of Revive. I always take the view that, if you want a document to be good, you'll always find that the best bit of writing is written by professional writers, and one of those was the esteemed Australian historian Clare Wright.

I should also refer to comments that were made right at the start by the shadow minister, where he put out a genuine concern, and, I think, a concern that we all have to watch closely, which is that, in moving Creative Partnerships across to the new Creative Australia, that does carry an expectation that Creative Australia will operate differently to how the Australia Council operated. I'm glad the shadow minister brought forward that expectation. It is important for the new body to hear that. Up until now, the Australia Council very much has been a funding body, and that's been its role. We are asking Creative Australia to be a body that will deal with the funded sector, with the philanthropic sector and with the commercial sector. While I describe them as three different sectors, members who have a large number of artists in their electorates, such as the member for Warringah, know well there's crossover between those workforces all the time. That's why we want there to be a single organisation, in Creative Australia, to be able to deal with them. I want to say I'm glad the shadow minister has raised those concerns, and the message about those concerns will be sent clearly to the new body.

That shift is the primary shift that is in the bill before us right now. I will return with new legislation in the coming months that will establish Creative Australia as an entirely new body. Obviously, staff and everyone will transfer across, but it will be established as a new organisation—not just a change of label. That is in part to make clear the expectations that the parliament have of the new organisation that it be able to deal with all those different sections of Australia's creative sector and creative economy. That bill will also established Music Australia and the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces. We will have later legislation that will establish the First Nations body, and legislation after that will establish Writers Australia. The reason for the delay on the First Nations body is that we really want to make sure we get the consultation right and to work out exactly what forms of governance will be the right forms of governance. So that will be in separate legislation. With Writers Australia, given that the funding for that starts a bit later, I want to have the benefit of seeing how Music Australia goes to then use the knowledge we have from that in exactly how we design Writers Australia.

All that legislation is to come, but the first step is the legislation before us now. I thank everybody for their contributions and commend the bill to parliament.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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