Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is grave concern in the arts community in Western Australia about the changes to the arts budget. It is pretty symptomatic of what we are seeing happening in the arts area across the board with this government. We have more and more resources being allocated to an elite and less and less resources and focus being spread around the community. There is grave concern that the $104 million which has been stripped from the Australia Council for the Arts funding is going to have a huge impact. The Australia Council has been very successful in putting in place a program which ensures that small organisations receive funding, and from that we see a groundswell of creativity. The minister's idea that he is going to pull this money out of the Australia Council and he himself, through his department, make the allocations to promote excellence in the arts is, in our view, a pretty thin veneer for wanting to concentrate funding for those organisations that are seen to be culturally elite. But in fact the real dynamism in the arts world so often comes from the smaller areas.

The Barking Gecko theatre, the Yirra Yaakin Aboriginal theatre group, the Blue Room Theatre, Strut Dance and PICA are just a few examples of the organisations that provide major contributions to individual artists and small programs that go on to partner with the international arts festivals, WA Ballet and the Sydney Theatre Company. It is these organisations that are providing that groundswell. Funding for these organisations, we are told by WA arts groups, is now under threat. We also see that Aboriginal organisations that have been taking arts into schools. Places like Narrogin and Kellerberrin have seen massive improvement in school retention and students' engagement with school. These sorts of programs, these community based arts programs are now under very real threat because of this decision. (Time expired)