Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Creative Australia Bill 2023. I'm a supporter of the bill. I would just like to make the point that, whilst I'm very happy to speak on this legislation, it is one of two debates I want to participate in today. The other one is the appropriations bill, which is important. It's the budget. I want to debate and talk about that on behalf of my constituents. There are 49 speakers lined up to speak on that in the Federation Chamber, and the government has decided that that debate will finish at the adjournment today. So it's very unlikely that I and a number of my colleagues are going to be able to speak on the appropriations bill, and I think that's a great shame. I'm informed by people who were here previous to me, who've been here a long time, that that was never something that the previous government would do. So I'd just make the point that I would like to be able to debate the appropriations bill.

However, I'm very happy to speak on the Creative Australia Bill 2023, and I'm a supporter of the bill as well. The arts are of great interest to me, and I'll go into that a bit later. Whether they're the performing arts, the visual arts, literature, or music, in my case, the arts are deserving of support and have received support from successive governments over a number of years.

This bill is unusual. It seeks to advance the government's legislative agenda to implement decisions announced as part of its national cultural policy. So far, the legislation which has passed has changed the name of the Australia Council to Creative Australia, so the Creative Australia Bill before the House gives effect to Creative Australia, an entity that will have expanded functions and responsibilities and a new governance structure, as the Creative Australia body replaces the Australia Council body.

This bill is also cognate with the Creative Australia (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023, which will repeal legislation as it relates to the Australia Council—essentially, dissolving the entity of the Australia Council under law. And I'm getting a bit confused as well, if other people are. You would think this would mean that the new entity replaces the old and the Australia Council is consigned to history, but not quite. Creative Australia will be overseen by a group of people who will now be known as the Australia Council Board. The old board had 12 and this body will have 14. So the logic of this is not immediately apparent, but, when you consider that it was the Whitlam government which originally came up with the name Australia Council, you can understand the reluctance of those opposite to abolish it completely. The spectre of Gough remains. But that's okay.

I'd just make the point also that I think the Whitlam government did some good things in relation to the arts. But, if any of you have watched a movie called Don's Party, which is a great example of Australian filmmaking and a very entertaining show, the producers of that film actually had the former Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton appear in that film, as a nod to his support for and kicking off of the Australian film industry in the late sixties. I think Labor governments like to portray that they're the only ones who support the arts, but there has been a long history of successive governments supporting the arts, and I think the coalition government did some great things in the previous term. But I think this bill is good and deserving of support as well.

What's immediately apparent is that we will have, under this policy, more Commonwealth arts officials. I'm worried that that comes at the expense of actual artists. We'd like to see some of the money go into the pockets of artists and not of bureaucrats, although people have informed me that bureaucracy is an art in itself—something that I'm learning and seeing examples of here in Canberra.

According to the budget, the average staffing level for the Australia Council will increase by 32 per cent, from an estimated 108 in 2022-23 to 143 in 2023-24, and there have been programs that were funded under the previous coalition government that have been cut. I think that's a little bit disappointing. The point of arts funding is to deliver it to creative people who can, in turn, deliver something of cultural substance to audiences—including, particularly, regional audiences.

So, despite the fact that I do have some concerns and some criticisms, I support the government in this bill and in supporting the arts. I'm pleased that the member for Macquarie is going to come to my electorate and talk to some arts organisations in my community about how some of this funding will work and how they can get access to it.

Why are the arts important? Well, I launched, with the member for Higgins, yesterday, Parliamentary Friends of Men's Health, and I talked about three things as being critical for men's health in my view. I talked about diet—and I linked that to the great produce grown in my electorate and said that I will be fighting for policies that help farmers produce that great produce and will be fighting those, including some of those opposite, who are developing policies to destroy those farming industries—but I also talked about physical and mental health. Sport and the arts are two ways that I certainly sustain my mental health, through physical activity and also through my relationship with the arts.

There is a connection between the arts and healthy lives. The arts give us a chance to reflect on our place in the world, give us a chance to reflect on creativity and what creativity means, and can help us expand our imagination, particularly for me when I listen to music. If I listen to Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock, which is a great jazz album from the 1960s, I come away with my imagination and my mind enhanced and I sometimes do that. It helps me deal with life up here.

The arts are also important because they connect regional communities. There is a cultural exchange between arts from different backgrounds. You only need to come to a festival like the St Georges Road Food Festival and creative festival in Shepparton to see all these diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds coming together. Regional areas have never been cultural deserts, though, and I can turn to the Shepparton Advertiser of 1897, which talked about the Shepparton minstrel club being hailed for an entertaining evening to benefit the Mooroopna Hospital. The Mooroopna brass band back then performed a song called Think of me sometimes, Maggie. The evening came to a raucous close with a farce called Stewed Mice, which, according to the reviewer 'Fairly convulsed the audience by their antics'. Regional communities have been involved in the arts and in creating art that reflects back the issues we have to grapple with.

I have been involved in some plays. I have appeared as an actor in some plays for the Shepparton Theatre Arts Group. I had to put on a upper class English accent for one of them but I won't do that now. There are some great plays written by local people about local issues. They help us explore what we're going through and are of great benefit to helping us understand who we are. There have been some great visual arts shows and arts hubs—the G.R.A.I.N Store in Nathalia or Customs House Gallery in Echuca—live performances, secret garden gigs. The secret garden gigs are a great example of entrepreneurship from a young woman called Jamie Lee, who hosts musical gigs in somebody's garden. I have hosted one. I have also performed in one, a version of Radiohead's Subterranean Homesick Alienfor those who are interested. We have a lot of creative groups, including the Shepparton Arts Group. They do it for love and enjoyment and to benefit the wider community.

I want to make a point about one of the really great initiatives in my region, one that was wholeheartedly supported by the former coalition government—that is, the Shepparton Art Museum. The Shepparton Art Museum has a significant collection, particularly of Namatjira artworks. It also has Kaiela Arts, which is a First Nations industry that has working artists. Some people come to see the more broad, more historical and more famous art, like Albert Namatjira. People can go into the art gallery and see more modern interpretations of art in our region and purchase those, and that sustains artists with an income. That is such a wonderful thing for my community, the Shepparton Art Museum, but it took a sustained effort from the local community and the support of the federal government. My predecessor, the former member for Nicholls, Damian Drum—some might know him as a footy coach with a love sport—was wholeheartedly supportive of and instrumental in getting federal government funding to help build that Shepparton Art Museum. It stands as a legacy for that coalition government, and I am very thankful for them for supporting that. There is also a number of other art museums. The Silo Art Trail—art works that are painted on wheat silos around the district—is fantastic.

I want to talk about art being able to help people express themselves in a unique way. I want to talk about a young man called Lee Nelson. Lee is autistic and he has found expression through his art. I saw his art works in an exhibition at a gallery in a place called Kyabram. I was really taken with the different way that he sees the world I don't like it when people refer to autism as a disability; Lee sees the world differently to a number of other people and he expresses that through his artworks. I was very moved and I bought a lot of his artworks, and they're proudly hanging in my electorate office in Shepparton. I think we need to foster places where new artists can develop, perform and make some income out of their artworks so that they can continue to create great art.

I'm interested to see how it works, but I like the idea of Music Australia and I want to see how that can get some money into the pockets of young, aspiring musicians, people who would have been able to sell records and CDs back in the day, but in the days of online streaming it's a bit harder. I'm interested to see how that works and I commit myself to working collaboratively with those opposite because I want to make that work. I was in a band called the Hunted back in the naughties. We put out an album and I wrote a song called 'Ballad of the Aimless Artist', about a guy who wrote a Japanese haiku poem and couldn't understand what it all meant, or what art meant. I'd really like to see a lot more support for young musicians, and I hope this bill can deliver that. I'll work with those opposite to help this happen.

These changes are part of the broader implementation of the government's national cultural policy. I'm a real supporter of the arts—it's one of the things I came up here for. I want so see regional arts continue to thrive. I believe they have done well under the previous coalition government, despite what some may say. I've had more than a few people from arts organisations come up to me and say, 'We're all lefties, we probably vote for Labor and the Greens, but I have to admit the coalition government probably supports the arts more than Labor governments, traditionally.' But I'm pleased with this bill and I'm pleased with the commitment. I think that's great and we're supporting the bill. I would also point out that I think this should lead to better outcomes for actual artists and not just bureaucrats, even though the art of bureaucracy is a beguiling one. I'm heartened by the indication that regional arts will receive some support and funding under this new national policy. I'm keen to see how and how much. I'm looking forward to working with the member for Macquarie, who is going to come to my electorate. Let's get on and work together. This should be a bipartisan one. We all believe in the arts. We all want to see artists do well. We all want to see creativity at the forefront of the Australian national identity. For me, as a regional MP, particularly seeing how that works for regional people and regional stories and regional arts, I indicate my support for the bill. I'd like to be able to debate appropriations—I'll get that in before my time runs out, though it looks like I won't be able to and I'm disappointed about that. I commend the Creative Australia Bill and look forward to seeing if we can get some more action in regional arts.

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