House debates

Monday, 24 August 2020

Private Members' Business

Arts, Tourism

11:13 am

Photo of Nicolle FlintNicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that cultural and creative activity plays an important role in:

(a) the lives of 98 per cent of Australians, who engage with the arts by making art, viewing, attending or going online to experience arts and culture;

(b) Australia's international tourism industry, with 43 per cent of all international tourists engaging with the arts while in Australia, who are travelling further, staying longer and spending more than other tourists;

(c) Australia's domestic tourism industry, with Australians taking 12.3 million arts day trips and 13.4 million arts overnight trips within Australia that include arts activities—this travel will play a role in helping communities rebuild and recover from disasters by supporting local jobs and economies; and

(d) Australia's economy, contributing more than $112 billion to our economy this year, or over 6 per cent of our gross domestic product, and this has increased by 30 per cent since 2008-09; and

(2) further notes that the Government is providing a record amount of funding to the arts, of around $750 million.

When I proposed this motion about the arts in Australia the world was a very different place. The coronavirus pandemic had not yet hit, life had not yet changed and our industries had not yet been severely impacted. We know that our arts, entertainment, and tourism and hospitality sectors have been and remain the most badly affected by this health and economic crisis. This is why the Morrison Liberal government has provided extensive support to the arts sector, which to date has included $336 million of JobKeeper support and $250 million of arts specific JobMaker support. I will continue to advocate for and support our artists, whether they are from the stage, screen, film, literature, music or visual arts. I have made my support for the arts known from my very first day in this place, as my maiden speech shows. I'm incredibly proud to have fought for and delivered some very significant arts funding for South Australia, to build on our long and proud history as the true home of the arts in Australia.

My campaign started when the Adelaide City Deal, which focuses on Lot Fourteen, was announced. I knew that the creation of our nation's largest and most significant Aboriginal Art and Cultures Gallery not far from Australia's best state art gallery, the Art Gallery of South Australia, would make North Terrace in Adelaide one of the key art gallery destinations in our land. What I also knew was that, within 30 minutes of North Terrace—and that's probably peak hour traffic timing—we had two opportunities to create Australia's best overall art gallery offering, by supporting the expansion of Carrick Hill and Hans Heysen's The Cedars property. This is why I spent some months working with Premier Steven Marshall and the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Minister Tudge, and their offices to put together a plan for not one but three significant galleries under our city deal. When national and international travel resumes, arts based tourism will assist South Australia's and our nation's economic recovery and will add to the usual $112 billion that our nation's arts sector generates each year.

The Aboriginal Art and Cultures Gallery is key to this plan, and it's supported by $85 million of federal government investment. The gallery will showcase and celebrate our incredible Indigenous art and culture, drawing on South Australia's nationally significant collection, which is currently warehoused. I am so grateful to the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Minister Wyatt, for explaining to me the importance of this collection and the historic opportunity that we have to showcase our Indigenous heritage to the nation and to the world. I know that the state government is working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to shape the gallery's design, curatorship, operations and management, and I cannot wait to see how this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and gallery take shape.

Just a short drive from our Aboriginal Art and Cultures Gallery and the Art Gallery of South Australia on North Terrace and into the Adelaide Hills you can find the home of one of Australia's most recognised and best loved artists, Sir Hans Heysen, and his daughter Nora Heysen. Thanks to a federal government grant of $9 million, we will finally see The Cedars transformed into one of Australia's most significant art attractions. At The Cedars, we have one of the very few preserved artists' homes and studios around the nation. Sir Hans Heysen was known for his incredible landscape paintings and for his immense love of our natural environment. His daughter Nora was just as talented in her own right. Nora was a distinguished portrait and still-life painter, and she was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, in 1938. She also became our first female war artist, during the Second World War.

Again not far from North Terrace and also The Cedars Heysen gallery is Carrick Hill, in my electorate of Boothby. Carrick Hill is home to a heritage house museum and garden. It's a very unique and unusual part of our national art gallery offerings. Carrick Hill has probably the world's most significant collection of Stanley Spencer's artworks but also some incredible pieces by Australian artists Arthur Streeton, Russell Drysdale, Nora and Hans Heysen and Ivor Hele, to name but a few, and we are supporting this with a $3 million federal government investment as well.

Photo of Trent ZimmermanTrent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Order. Is the motion seconded?

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

The motion is seconded, and I reserve my right to speak.

Photo of Trent ZimmermanTrent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to. I call the very shaggy member for Scullin.

11:18 am

Photo of Andrew GilesAndrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker Zimmerman. Some of us have the opportunity still to be shaggy!

Photo of Trent ZimmermanTrent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rule that disorderly!

Photo of Andrew GilesAndrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | | Hansard source

On Saturday night, the ABC show Rage broadcast a playlist of Melbourne songs and managed to be disciplined enough to keep this list to 101. I won't debate the selection—here, at least—but that there's such a range speaks volumes. This was a lovely gesture and much appreciated by many of us in lockdown, including those who didn't manage to stay up quite so late. It was also a powerful reminder of the connection between the arts and place. While there are themes that are universal, how we tell those stories that are ours matters. They define us as Australians and, indeed, as Melburnians, and they offer those of us whose lives are presently confined a glimpse of both how things were and how they can be, of hope along with connection—and both matter so much now.

But, for the people who tell these stories, write these songs and otherwise create the art that speaks to our sense of ourselves and our place in the world, times could not be tougher. The pandemic has devastated our creative industries. So I welcome this motion, and I thank the member for Boothby for bringing it before the parliament and, in particular, for her remarks on the significance of our First Nations art, something that really is unique to our country. This is so important.

But I can't support all the motions before the House, because there is so much more that needs to be done. The Morrison government has failed to safeguard our creative industries and has abandoned many thousands of Australian creatives, so many of whom will, I fear, be lost to the arts forever. They have been cut off from income support, of course, cruelly and unnecessarily. In effect, they have been given a message about their value that is simply wrong. Let me be clear: this is not Labor's view. While state governments—in particular the Victorian government with the leadership of my friend the minister, Martin Foley—engaged early and seriously with structured supports for the creative industries, this has been yet another case of too little and too late from the Morrison government. It was more than five months ago that Labor called for a comprehensive industry support package, recognising that, as the shadow minister has said, we're talking about the first industry to have been shut down due to the pandemic, an industry which will also face very, very significant challenges when it comes to re-emerging from the crisis.

The motion before us is right to identify, as it does, the importance of the arts to regional economies, but its terms indicate in themselves that we need to do more and also to think harder. From our perspective now, international tourism, most obviously, looks very different. We do need to focus on how we can rebuild a visitor economy that is in significant part driven by the arts—or, rather, a number of such visitor economies. We need to put in place the right supports and the right plans—supports, in the first place, for our creatives and plans that are sufficiently adaptive to an uncertain environment. Questions of the timing of borders reopening and, indeed, of how people might behave in a new world as consumers—in particular attitudes to crowds even in the absence of social distancing requirements—need very careful consideration. The arts have a critical role to play in our recovery. This much should be evident to all of us. Our challenge, though, is to ensure that we in this place are doing what we can to enable this in all of its dimensions.

As the shadow minister for cities, my concern is to see our entertainment precincts once again become drivers of livability and productivity. I know how important this is to all of our cities. Around the world, there's increasing recognition of the critical role creative industries play in driving economic growth and productivity growth. Recent work by the Brookings Institution and the LSE makes this clear. In Australia, this presents a huge opportunity, but we can't and must not assume it will happen all by itself. There is a fundamental role for government here. Brookings tell us that a substantial and sustained national creative economy recovery strategy is required—for the US, of course, in their case. But it's equally true—more so, I would say—here. But are the minister and the Morrison government listening? There's a fundamental debate also to be had beyond all of this about how we value creativity as a society as well as an economy and how we support it. That's a debate Labor is very keen to have in this place and in the community.

This motion, for me, brings before the House three critical issues: support for artists to get them through this crisis, support for the arts as fundamental to our identity, and the role of the creative industries in our economy as a vital linchpin of our recovery. These aren't options; they have to go together. Now we can't leave anyone behind. Our stories matter more than ever, and we must recognise that the talents of Australians must be supported to help all of us rebuild.

11:23 am

Photo of Celia HammondCelia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for moving this motion. The arts are vital not only to our nation's culture but also as a mechanism through which we express ourselves and understand ourselves as a people. I said in my first speech that while a work of art may not save your life in the way that good health care can, and while it may not make your trip to work any quicker or easier than a good road system can, we need the arts to challenge us and to help us to look at the world in different ways. More broadly than that, the arts in their many varied forms have also reminded us over the past few months of their enduring ability to entertain, provide comfort and stimulate our minds, and, in the absence of live performances, concerts and exhibitions, of just how much they truly contribute to the vibrancy of our communities.

In Western Australia, the creative industries employ approximately 53,000 people and contribute an estimated $3.3 billion industry value-add to the WA economy. In my electorate of Curtin, 93 per cent of people in our community attend cultural venues or events. Data from 2017 to 2018 showed that 80 per cent go to the movies, 73 per cent engage with the performing arts, 55 per cent engage with live music and 45 per cent visit art galleries. Forty-one one per cent of people in my electorate are themselves involved in creative activities, such as performing, singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument.

We are of course spoilt for choice when it comes to arts events in Curtin. The Perth International Arts Festival is the oldest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere, having grown out of the University of Western Australia's annual summer school entertainment in the early 1950s. The festival, which runs over February and March each year, plays an important role in not only attracting great international acts to WA but also telling local stories. Two highlights of the festival this year included the premiere season of Yirra Yaakin Theatre's Hecate, the story of Macbeth performed entirely in the Noongar language, and of course the Highway to Hell event, which saw 150,000 Western Australians turn out in force in celebration of AC/DC and Bon Scott. My hopes remain high for a future Locomotion event of similar scale, to celebrate Kylie Minogue!

Now in its 16th year, the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition is another incredible event that takes place in Curtin, at Cottesloe Beach. It is estimated that in 2019 the event contributed $6.8 million in direct interstate and international spending and attracted over 210,000 visitors, including 3,500 people from interstate and overseas. Despite having to finish early this year due to COVID-19, it was still a great drawcard, showcasing amazing work by established and emerging artists from all over the world. Of note was the SS Endless Summer, by local artists Ellen Broadhurst, Tom Rogers and Jaxon Waterhouse, which used over 5,000 empty Masters milk cartons and was inspired by the container ships that dot the horizon of the Indian Ocean.

Finally I want to highlight the University Dramatic Society, known as UDS, a student-run society at the University of Western Australia. For over 100 years, UDS has been entertaining the public and providing opportunities for young people to pursue creative outlets and shine on stage. I am reliably informed by my dad that the society's best show was the 1956 performance of Romeo and Juliet, in which my dad played Romeo and my mum played Juliet's mum. While the ending in real life was slightly different from that proposed by Shakespeare, I posit that it was certainly a happier ending.

It is imperative that we all continue, where possible, to support our local artists and arts organisations. There is no doubt that COVID-19 has hit them very hard. I know my sister has had her work impacted. But, with true spirit, the artists have found new ways of bringing art to all of us, and the government in turn is making a significant investment in our arts and, importantly, is working with the arts industry through the newly established Creative Economy Taskforce, chaired by the former chair of the Perth International Arts Festival Mr John Barrington AM, to ensure that the support goes where it is needed and that our creative industries and our artists stay alive and flourishing.

11:28 am

Photo of Alicia PayneAlicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for bringing forward this motion today. The member for Boothby clearly knows and values the arts and the arts workforce. How could she not, when she is representing the festival state here in this place? According to 2018 data, South Australia brings in over $100 million per year with its program of festivals, and this year, in its 60th year, the Adelaide Festival generated $70 million in expenditure, 286 full-time jobs, 17,105 visitors and the equivalent of 132,000 nights at hotels in Adelaide for the South Australian economy. This is an incredible economic impact and one that is echoed across the country by various festivals and arts events. Therefore, it is a pity that this government, which the member for Boothby is part of, does not value the arts and artists in the same way that she does. It is shameful that artists, creatives, performers and arts industry workers have been left completely behind by this government in its response to COVID-19. They have mostly been ineligible for JobKeeper or JobSeeker and have been left out of the response to the pandemic and to the recession. It is a disgrace that the Prime Minister wheeled out Guy Sebastian to finally announce much-needed funding, only to find out two months later that none of the money has actually been distributed—$250 million still not in the hands of the artists and creatives who need it, and there is still confusion about eligibility—and, anyway, a lot of it is loans, so that's not real support.

Worse still, the member for Boothby's claim of a record-breaking $750 million of arts funding has been debunked by senior public servants in the arts portfolio, who warned Arts Minister Fletcher that there was no sufficiently detailed data or modelling to support the claims he was making about the level of support provided by the Morrison government.

State and territory governments around the country are stepping in to fill the gaps left by the Morrison government in response to the COVID-19 economic downturn. Here in Canberra, the ACT Labor government has stepped up with $6 million in economic stimulus to support Canberra's creatives through the COVID-19 pandemic. To support our Canberra artists, grants of up to $10,000 each have been provided to local artists through the HOMEFRONT program. In the first round, 66 artists received funding, and a further 59 have received support this month. The ACT arts minister, Gordon Ramsay, has also secured a $1 million investment in Canberra's arts organisations. This is in addition to the over $10 million provided to the ACT's arts sector in annual arts funding. This is what real support looks like.

Kate Smith, an artist here in my electorate of Canberra, contacted me prior to Arts Day on the Hill, on 12 August, with data from the Australian Council for the Arts. In Canberra, 90 per cent of people participate as audience members and 51 per cent of Canberrans participate in creative activities themselves. In her email to me, Kate said, 'In this figure, half the electorate participating in creative activities—that I find the most exciting. As a local artist, I have observed firsthand how the local arts societies and centres bring together a diverse array of people and provide community and connection.'

Kate is right. This is exciting and it truly demonstrates the value of properly funding the arts in a community. Arts bring us together and tell our stories, and during COVID-19 artists have continued to do that as best they can, despite the lack of support from the Morrison government. And let's not forget how our arts community is often the first to step up in times of crisis. The bushfires were a great example of that. But this government has not supported them in a time of crisis for them, when they were one of the first sectors to be hit.

On Arts Day on the Hill I visited local Canberra artist Rosina Wainwright at her studio in the inner north. Through her art, Rosina tells the stories of not only her own life but the lives of others. COVID-19 and not being able to exhibit her work has had a significant impact on her health and wellbeing. She was also able to tell this story through beautiful pieces of art, which she showed me that day, and she also showed me how she made them. Thank you, Rosina, for inviting me to visit.

Without support from the Morrison government during this pandemic, many artists have pursued other forms of income rather than creating the works they would have been scheduled to show at the Adelaide Festival and other festivals, exhibitions and events around Australia. I call on the member for Boothby and the Morrison government to show they actually take this seriously and to step up and support this important sector of our economy and sector, our arts sector.

11:34 am

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

I rise in support for the member for Boothby's motion. Never has it been more important to support the arts. Everyday Australians are creating, looking, watching, experiencing and participating in art every day—and now through COVID-19—in so many ways that we would never have imagined before the dawn of the internet. Successive federal governments have invested in the arts over many years, driven by the need for a collective identity and the formation of our reputation in postwar Australia. We began to identify what our expression of us would look like. Trusts were formed, and the public broadcasting station, the ABC—our ABC—added to the new sound of Australia, showcasing for the first time local Australian talent. I'm proud that the former member for Higgins, Harold Holt, announced plans for a national gallery of Australia and formed the Australia Council for the Arts.

Supporting the arts and culture has many purposes. It drives social improvement and contributes to the economy. It makes a hugely important contribution to our sense of self and, just as importantly, to our sense of self as a nation, in particular through our Indigenous art, which is precious and globally unique. For all the art and culture sector contributes to our community, it is fragile. It is beholden to a strong economy. And, often, it's the first thing to drop out of the family budget when times are tough. The value of art can drop with the stock market, and the success of a show or gallery is based on the amount of people that come through its doors.

But our artists are resilient. We know that. Their passion for their work survives most storms, even if many have had to pivot to new ways of expression, as we've all had to do through COVID. The Australian creative economy contributes about $112 billion a year—almost six per cent of our GDP. The arts, entertainment and screen sectors employ more than 600,000 Australians. But, as with any great endeavour, the sector is not just about the artists and actors with their names up in lights. These industries are full of teams supporting the artists' endeavours: the roadies, the producers, the lighting technicians, the set designers, the ushers and the security guards. So when these jobs were threatened by the COVID pandemic, the Australian government was there to support them: first with JobKeeper and JobSeeker and then with a whole suite of industry-specific measures.

These measures were implemented to protect our arts and our creative and cultural sector. We rely on this sector for its beauty, for its joy, for its connection, to be challenged, to be provoked and for our sense of self. We've needed the arts through COVID, and we will need them more than ever when the world starts to open up again. More than that, we want to make sure that this industry will be ready to thrive when the world gets back to business. The Morrison government is working closely with the Australia Council, the Australian government's arts funding and advisory body, to understand the best kind of support needed by the sector. This is through a ministerial task force, which will work to implement the JobMaker plan for the creative economy. The Creative Economy Taskforce, announced over the weekend, will bring together members from many aspects of Australia's arts and cultural sectors. Their extensive experience will play a critical role in ensuring Australia's vibrant and energetic arts scene is returned following the impacts of coronavirus. Through JobKeeper and boosting the cash flow support, we're supporting individuals and businesses—totalling around $100 million a month in the arts sector alone.

We know that the art and cultural industries were halted almost overnight, often in the middle of productions. So, with the help of Screen Australia, $50 million has been injected into a temporary interruption fund and will be administered to support local film and television producers to secure finance and start filming again. For those who need help getting back on their feet now that we've started to open up, $90 million in concessional loans will be available to fund new productions and events. These will help get the creative economy moving again, in the form of show starter loans. Seed funding will be available to art productions for new productions, events or festivals, to support the reopening of Australia's creative and cultural sector.

This targeted financial intervention will stimulate and support businesses in the cultural and creative sector to restart today and ensure that they are there for everyone to enjoy tomorrow. We know this sector has been fragile, and we've made sure that we're there for them to make sure that they're there for every Australian.

11:39 am

Photo of Anika WellsAnika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Boothby for her motion today, which recognises the economic and cultural value of the arts industry. It is high time that we shift the paradigm of what art means in Australia. It is an economic powerhouse: a creative and performing arts industry that contributes $112 billion to our economy each year—over six per cent of our GDP. In my electorate of Lilley, we have a vibrant and lively arts and entertainment community, who have been hit really hard by the COVID pandemic. Thankfully under the guidance of our Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queenslanders for the most part are now able to get back out and enjoy live shows with moderated formats and visit art galleries on the weekend to support our local artists and entertainers. I'm particularly excited to announce that Netflix is premiering a movie in September called Romance on the Menu which was shot in my electorate in Shorncliffe pre-COVID.

But we cannot underestimate the toll that the last six months has taken on the industry. Within one media conference banning public and private gatherings, 92,000 Queenslanders who work directly or indirectly in the creative and performing arts industry watched at least six months of work go up in smoke. Northside festivals in Lilley like the Zillmere, Einbunpin and Sandgate Youth festivals were all cancelled. Local galleries like Artrageous in Sandgate had to close their doors for public viewings, and theatre productions were put on hold, including shows produced by Stafford Heights youth theatre company Harvest Rain. The shutdown meant that countless hours of preparation, production costs, ticket sales and marketing expenses were effectively flushed down the drain. Speaking with local artists and entertainers, the message they asked me to send to the government in Canberra was clear: 'We need help and we need it now.'

The Morrison government's initial response to the industry-wide crisis was to take no action, claiming that JobKeeper was more than enough support. That wasn't true. But if you wanted to design a system which was a boundary to creative arts, JobKeeper would be it. Work in the arts and entertainment industry is transient. People receive lumpy, sporadic income. A small number of creative artists work for one employer over 12 months as casual workers. While a theatre company's admin staff and their agents might be eligible, the creative artists they hire to put on a show are not. In fact the program was so ill-fitting for the arts industry that the Sydney Theatre Company was eligible for JobKeeper but the Queensland Theatre Company was excluded.

In April the Morrison government rolled out a $27 million arts package which could best be described as a weak flimsy bandaid with virtually no adhesive—$27 million for an industry that contributes $112 billion to our economy each year does not even touch the sides of the loss that they have suffered. Shortly after the announcement, I had a Zoom meeting with a dozen local artists, entertainers and art business owners, and not one of them stood to benefit from the fresh announcement.

It is clear that the Morrison government also knew that the package wasn't good enough, because 154 days after Labor first called for a real package that would actually help local artists, small artists, the Morrison government finally announced a suite of grants and loan programs. I welcome it, because I know what proper funding will mean for so many local artists and entertainers who do qualify. But I cannot stress enough how important it is to get this money out the door as soon as possible to keep our performing arts and entertainment industry going, because the doors don't just swing open once the funds arrive. Art takes time and money to create. It's not a matter of putting on a play that weekend, airing a new show or opening a new exhibition or gallery within days of the money finally coming through; it takes months of planning, prep and practice.

Applications for some of the RISE Fund and the Arts Sustainability Fund don't open for another week, which is a full 67 days after they were first announced. As one local artist it put to me a month after the package was announced: 'It is enormously frustrating and hard to plan for the future when we still don't even know if we will be eligible for the support. It is just madness that they would leave us hanging for 100 days and then, once announced, leave us with absolute radio silence since the announcement of that support.'

On behalf of northside artists and entertainers, I rise again today to urge the Morrison government to get the ball rolling on the arts package funding as quickly as possible so that those people can get back to doing the work that they love.

11:44 am

Photo of Tim WilsonTim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Yes, the arts do matter—to the member for Gellibrand—but I don't just want to support international artists, including the great Reginald Dwight, Sir Elton John; I want to support Australian artists as well. I want to support Australian artists in making sure that they have a career, a future and an opportunity because, believe it or not, Speaker, my background originally is actually in the arts. My first degree at university was in fine art, majoring in painting, and I was going to pursue a career as a painter and printmaker. Circumstances intervened, and a passion for public policy and the good of the nation took priority. But that doesn't change the fact that there are millions of Australians who have chosen to make the arts their career. There are those who have done so through their passion for singing and performance—and, yes, sometimes including people in this chamber—and there are also those who paint for a living and who create and reflect society back to itself.

That's the enduring power of the arts. They prompts us to reflect on what we do. I don't mean 'we' as in the people in this chamber; I mean the whole of the community. It's an opportunity to speak about discomforts and injustices and to bring joy and hope and inspiration to many people. The role the arts play in enriching our community is profound, and I don't think anybody in this chamber would dispute that. Artists have been at the forefront of the worst burdens of the lockdowns, particularly in the great state of Victoria, the home of art and culture and cultural appreciation in this country, the home of our literary traditions, the home of—let's face it—most things which are good in this great country, except perhaps for one government at the moment. The arts are critical to our tourism sector, particularly in Victoria, because people travel from all across the nation and sometimes internationally to see some of its most fantastic institutions, like the National Gallery of Victoria, and live performances at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

That's why the Morrison government has been so clear in supporting the arts sector throughout this pandemic, putting a whopping $750 million on the table to assist with supporting the arts across the country. We know that artists are doing it tough, and we know that when artists can't perform they can't get income. Thankfully, the arts community have been adaptive and have seen the opportunity for what they provide to move online and into the community. Many people are relying on the arts community in their isolation. I can say with absolute confidence that during my two-week quarantine I did consume some of the cultural products of the nation to keep myself entertained, and that's exactly what a lot of families in Victoria are doing right now. They're relying on our television content creators, they're relying on being able to stream performances into their homes and they're relying on a reflection of our own country back to us to understand where we're placed in the world. That's why it's so critical and so important to support the arts.

The biggest challenge we've had during this pandemic has been the deception, sadly, by some of the unions about the sector's access to the JobKeeper program. Of course, there has been no such exclusion of the arts sector; it is just dishonest to say so. There was one sector excluded from the JobKeeper program—the banking sector. That was one section of private enterprise that was excluded. They have no right to complain, but they were definitely excluded. The arts sector was not. Despite that, the union continued to mislead and deceive its members about what was going on, often to the detriment of people who were seeking and working towards what they could do to support themselves. This government isn't going to give into deception. This government is going to support the arts community now and into the future as part of the cultural life of the nation.

11:49 am

Photo of Tim WattsTim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | | Hansard source

Well, it's hard being an artist in Melbourne now—really hard. Aussie artists were the first to bear the brunt of COVID-19 restrictions. Social-distancing restrictions introduced in March meant no gigs, no exhibitions, no galleries, no musicals, no theatre productions and no comedy performances, and for many it meant no livelihood. Nearly 650,000 Australians work in the arts, and their job is a special one. It's not just a pay cheque; it's a vocation. It's a job that's meaningful to all of us. Australian artists tell our stories, and their tools are passion, empathy and connection, things that are more important to us during the pandemic than ever before and things that we will value more when we move beyond the current crisis. But, for hundreds of thousands of Australians, it's still a job. It's an income. It's food. It's the rent. It's tough to make ends meet working in the arts in Australia at the best of times, and it's difficult to think of worse times than now, which makes the motion before the House now all the more perverse and cruel.

Too many Australians are being left behind by the Morrison government. There's a new announcement every day, but they never deliver. This Prime Minister is there for the photo op but never there for the follow-up. The motion before the House is a classic example. For all the congratulations in this motion about the federal government's arts spending, when COVID-19 restrictions came into force in March of this year the Morrison government did nothing for the hundreds of thousands of Australian artists who'd lost their livelihoods. The Morrison government refused to listen to artists and arts organisations who told them about the difficulties that artists had in satisfying the eligibility criteria for JobKeeper payments. The Morrison government refused to listen to the state and territory arts ministers who, in a meeting with the arts minister in May, pushed for an expansion of eligibility for the JobKeeper package for Australian artists. The government refused to listen to Labor's calls for a dedicated arts sector support package. They did nothing for a hundred days.

It was only when public pressure became too much, when the reality of what was happening to Australian artists and their families became undeniable, that the Morrison government reluctantly responded. But, unfortunately, they responded in a way that is now all too typical: turn up for the announcement and go missing when it's time for delivery—the Greatest Showman for the media but an Ebenezer Scrooge for Australians in need. The Prime Minister put a lot of work into planning the media announcement for his arts relief package, which largely comprises concessional loans to major arts organisations. He rolled out desperate artists as props for the media, but, when the TV cameras stopped filming, he forgot about them once again. It was a further six weeks after the announcement of this relief package before guidelines were approved to allow the provision of less than half of the announced funds. To date, not a single dollar of federal government support for the arts sector through this package has gone to artists who need it. On the same day as that announcement, incidentally, the minister finally got around to releasing draft guidelines for live music grants that had been sitting on his desk for 18 months. Even worse, these guidelines provide that the government's emergency funding won't even begin to flow until November, and the minister has been unable even to guarantee that any of this funding will be provided this year. Just to underline it, this crisis and these social-distancing restrictions began in March, and Australian artists won't even begin to see targeted support until November at best.

Even worse, when Australian artists read the guidelines of the government's arts relief package, there were a few rude surprises—not least for Creative Productions, the Gold Coast production company who hosted the Prime Minister for his announcement only to discover weeks later when they read the fine print, which you always need to do when it comes to the Morrison government, that they were not even eligible for any of the programs that the Prime Minister had announced at their work site. When he saw the guidelines for the Prime Minister's arts relief package, Stephen Knight, the Creative Productions CFO, said:

The entire industry is being left for dead. If this continues, at the end of this pandemic you will have no production companies left to actually stage any events.

He wrote to the Prime Minister:

I just don't know if you are aware that our industry is simply dead right now.

Australian artists deserve better than a 'catch me if you can' Prime Minister, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of accountability through yet another media announcement or public distraction. Australian artists deserve a PM who will actually deliver for them in their time of need, a PM who respects the way they earn a living and will fight for it, a PM who doesn't put political ideology before helping Australian workers in need and a PM who sees the worth of their work for the nation now and after the pandemic.

11:54 am

Photo of Bridget ArcherBridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Last year I proudly gave a speech in this House, singing the praises of the incredible creative arts industry in Northern Tasmania. The electorate of Bass has long had a strong cultural scene backed by a passionate community who consistently throw their support behind our many festivals, art shows and theatre performances. Although I'm incredibly proud of our arts scene, I can safely say it isn't just blind patriotism about my community, with tourists coming from all over the state and the mainland to attend our events, ranging from the Junction Arts Festival to MONA FOMA or one of our first-rate theatre shows.

As with the tourism and hospitality industries this year, the arts scene, those planned shows, whether they be musicals, dance performances, stage shows or art exhibitions, came to a grinding halt in March this year. From speaking with many involved in this industry, I have some understanding of just how crushing this has been.

For the award-winning Encore Theatre Company, it meant their much-anticipated production of Mamma Mia! the musical was cancelled just weeks out from the first curtain. This was a blow to not only everyone involved in the production but also the team at Theatre North, who manage the Princess Theatre, where the show was to be staged. While some theatregoers have held onto their tickets in the hopes of seeing the show, perhaps next year, hundreds of thousands of dollars in ticket sales have been refunded, which has had a major impact on both Encore and Theatre North. As the programs manager for Theatre North, Stuart Loone, said recently:

Theatres like the Princess are not meant to be sitting in darkness, they are meant to be places of a lot of joy.

Stuart and his team at Theatre North have worked tirelessly during the shutdown in an effort to get the theatre back to being a place where they can begin holding, as they describe them, high-impact, small-scale performances for the remainder of this year, including artist talks, poetry nights, fundraising events and the continuation of their wonderful behind-the-scenes tour of the theatre.

I was lucky enough to attend a tour of the Princess Theatre a few weeks ago and was struck by its ornate beauty and history but saddened to see it dark and empty, without the vibrancy that live theatre brings. It also gave me an insight into the challenges the theatre faces now in booking and staging shows, with the safe allocation of seating and the increased cleaning demands being just some of the hurdles the COVID environment presents, making already thin margins even tighter and overheads even higher. To the Theatre North team: I can see the impact that COVID-19 has had on your organisation, and your passion and your determination to build back stronger than ever. I will do whatever I can to help you and I look forward to seeing the lights come on once again.

In the discussions surrounding the arts industry, one area that has perhaps been forgotten is the impact on students both at university and in years 11 and 12 who have also lost the opportunity to stage their works of art or perform on stage in their final years of schooling. In the Northern Tasmania region, the annual ArtRage exhibition provides an incredible opportunity for year 11 and 12 students in our community to showcase their talent. It is now in its 26th year. I'm very pleased to report that, despite fears the annual event would not be going ahead due to the pandemic, the exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery will be held, from December 2020 through to March 2021. I commend the team at the museum for working so hard to ensure this event can go ahead despite the current restrictions.

I do want to acknowledge that, as in many other industries who, overnight, felt the severe impact of COVID-19, there has been worry and concern about the future of those employed in creative industries. JobKeeper and JobSeeker have played a significant role in assisting those in this industry, and the $250 million arts support package announced by Minister Fletcher also marks the government's desire to get the economy going again in the arts sector. Getting our creative industries back on their feet is going to be extremely tough in this new era of social distancing, and I in no way want to diminish what lies ahead. But I am committed to doing what I can to support the local arts community on the journey forward and I encourage everyone in my community to support our local artists and performers, who are trying so hard to innovate and adapt.

11:58 am

Photo of Susan TemplemanSusan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

There was a bit of a thread on social media at the peak of COVID: 'What was the last gig you went to before the lockdowns?' Well, mine was a sold-out performance at the Enmore Theatre by Julia Jacklin, with her excellent bass player, my son Harry—and what a performance! But two days later the tour was over and they were coming home to be housebound. By contrast, I went to my first COVID gig a few weeks ago, at the Lansdowne—again, to see my son play—but this time it was a much more intimate audience, and, while it was wonderful to be able to see him, with singer Ruben Neeson, it was one of those moments that brought home to me again the profound effect this virus is having—on some groups more than others. Musicians, actors, visual artists, filmmakers, set designers, set makers, costume makers, circus performers, scriptwriters, lighting teams and buskers saw their income evaporate overnight when the COVID pandemic restrictions came into force. They are among the hardest hit but they are not the only ones. We're starting to see music return to small venues like the Avalon in Katoomba and The Church Bar in Windsor, among others, and performances with smaller numbers at bigger venues like The Joan and the Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub at Springwood, but it's going to be a long time before we can call it a vibrant music or theatre scene locally.

While I don't doubt the personal interests of those opposite in the arts, I don't think this government really understands the breadth of the support that's needed to sustain our creatives through this darkest time. Their lives have been so affected and, while wonderful creativity online has emerged—I celebrate the fact that many small galleries and artists, like Nadia Odlum in my electorate, have delighted in people's desire to have more works on their walls as they spend more time at home and on Zoom—the ability for many to make money from the arts right now is limited. What we've seen from this government is month after month of delay in announcing support—

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I need to ask the member for Macquarie to resume her seat. We've gone past 12 o'clock and we'll now move to government business. We've got a number of matters here before we get to legislation.