Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With Australia's arts and entertainment sector still rebuilding from the COVID pandemic, you might have expected that this government would be focused on moving quickly with practical measures to support the arts and entertainment sector. But, since the election, the Minister for the Arts has refused to release $20 million in committed funding under the coalition government's RISE program that was included in the budget and which could have assisted the arts sector over the last few months. Instead, the priority of this government has been to have a plan about a plan—their so-called National Cultural Policy. The recent discussion paper gives some clues about what it might cover, with a first chapter mystifyingly titled in opaque bureaucratic language 'National Culture Plan Consultation Framing Submission'. According to this paper, the arts sector urgently needs a 'conversation about industrial standards and settings'. In other words, the new Labor government wants to force the arts sector to sign up to a new union-friendly industrial framework. All of this is a long way away from supporting the delivery of great shows seen by as many Australians as possible.

There were some quite bizarre views put forward to the consultation process. According to one submission, a focus on reaching the audience is a bad thing: 'a commercial expectation that can adversely impact on cultural benefit'. Another submission sneers at audiences, saying: 'Australian arts audiences are largely educated white people, mostly middle-aged women. Surely we can get better at this.' Yet another claims, 'After decades of being ignored and even deliberately suppressed, artists have come to expect nothing from government but open contempt.' Author Clare Wright, appointed to the minister's expert advisory group, says that the cultural sector has been 'trivialised and marginalised'.

In fact, arts and culture receive strong support from both sides of politics. Under our Liberal-National government, in 2021-22 total Commonwealth arts funding was a record $1 billion, higher than any previous government, Liberal or Labor. It's true that just today the Minister for the Arts finally announced some COVID support for the arts sector, many months too late. Even now, all we have is a vague announcement. The full details of Labor's scheme are yet to be revealed, including how much funding is available and the specifics of what determines eligibility to receive payments under the fund. All the minister needed to do was to use the existing RISE funding, and the money could have already been flowing into the sector. That could have happened some months ago. Instead, his new fund is not kicking off until November and only runs for three months.

RISE effectively operated as a pre-insurance scheme, because grant recipients knew that the funding they received did not have to be returned if an event was cancelled due to COVID. RISE funded more than 541 projects, creating over 195,000 job opportunities across Australia. A very good example is the Byron Bay Bluesfest, held in April this year following the very unfortunate cancellation of that event last year. This year's blues fest could not have gone ahead without the $2.4 million injection it received from the RISE fund. This was confirmed to me by the organisers when I had the chance to visit and see some terrific performances.

There are plenty of sensible arts priorities which the new government could consider as it works on its so-called national cultural policy. Boosting the market for Indigenous art makes good sense. Using the internet to help show live performances all around Australia, just as the Australian Digital Concert Hall successfully did during COVID, is a powerful tool so more Australians can access the arts. Making the arts more available to Australians who live in our suburbs and in regional and remote areas, who today are rather underserved in contrast to the abundance of inner city and CBD venues, would be a very good thing. Keeping government funding for the arts competitive and contestable, instead of locking in the money to the same cosy club of arts companies for decades, is important. All of these were priorities for the previous government, and I think they would make good sense for the new government. But, sadly, it looks like this government's national cultural policy is more about ideology and industrial relations than making the arts more accessible and supporting more great Australian performers.