Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The arts and creative organisations across Melbourne are some of the most vibrant and diverse in Australia. Just look at some of the amazing major theatre productions in my home town, including Moulin Rouge,Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the highly anticipated Hamilton only a few weeks away. We also have myriad excellent smaller productions and shows that are not to be missed. As the member for Higgins, I've helped advocate for some of the very best local artists, businesses and organisations in the arts sector, who are now weathering the economic storm of the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to unprecedented support from the Morrison government. I am also proud to have called for a national inquiry into the arts as part of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts. I look forward to the minister's response to our Sculpting a national cultural plan, including our recommendation to develop a national cultural plan to assess the medium- and long-term impact of COVID on the sector.

Last month federal arts minister Paul Fletcher came to Higgins and met some of the organisations benefiting from grants from the highly competitive federal government Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand Fund—the RISE Fund—and the popular Live Music Australia grants. We met with the owner of popular nightclub Chasers, Martha Tsamis, and her team and learnt how they'll utilise the $36,000 in federal funding under the Live Music Australia program. This grant is supporting them with the installation of audio upgrades and staff training in sound and lighting to produce an even better experience for their loyal clientele. Chasers is actually a popular destination for Higgins's thriving LGBTIQA+ community, as it showcases the very best of the best from the award-winning RuPaul's Drag Race franchise phenomenon. I can't wait to pay Chasers a visit soon when some of the queens sashay into this fierce nightclub.

Chasers joins other local clubs, artists and organisations in Higgins that have benefited from funding under additional federal government support to help kickstart the creative economy post COVID. The total package of federal government support for the arts sector stands at over $970 million in extra funding in response to the pandemic. This is on top of an annual investment of around $750 million in core funding in 2020-21 and on top of more than $730 million provided by JobKeeper and the $119 million provided by cashflow payments. This funding has been critical and timely as it has enabled our businesses to continue to operate during this unprecedented and unpredictable period of severe disruption.

Finally, I would like to state that I am very proud of the fact that the federal government is following on from a recommendation of the arts review report and has committed to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct, Ngurra, which will be built on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in the Parliamentary Triangle on Ngunawal country in Canberra. This is a fantastic outcome for our Indigenous arts cultural precinct.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.