Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I hear those opposite saying congratulations to me, and I am happy to accept that. In terms of the detail, approximately $61 million in uncommitted funding over four years will be transferred. This includes the $32 million transferred to the Australia Council that I announced in late 2015. These new funding arrangements will see a total of $80.2 million over four years in both committed and uncommitted funding transferred to the Australia Council from 2017-18. I should recap briefly on what the Catalyst program has achieved. It has provided $35 million to 189 projects across the arts and culture sector, and 159 of those were to small and medium organisations. A total of 1,086 individual activities were undertaken, and 833 of these were across the nation, including 436 activities in regional and remote Australia, and Catalyst has funded an incredibly broad range of activities. While recognising the broad range of good projects that Catalyst has supported across the nation, the government has listened to and responded to feedback from the sector, from the Australia Council, and, as a result, as I have indicated, is undertaking a further rebalancing of funds within the portfolio. But I should make clear that we will be retaining $2 million per year in the portfolio as an alternative source for these organisations. (Time expired)