Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson-Young today relating to support for the arts and entertainment industry.

I rise to take note of the answers given by Senator Cormann to my question today relating to the lack of action this government has taken to support the arts and entertainment industry. I asked the minister whether actions spoke louder than words. His response was yes. But, of course, as we go through what the government has actually done in relation to the arts and entertainment sector in the midst of this pandemic, it's quite clear that they speak a lot but they don't do a lot. There are a lot of promises made and very little delivered. The Prime Minister stood with Guy Sebastian, the Australian Idol superstar, back in June. He promised that finally, after waiting for months, the arts and entertainment industry would receive some funding. Two months later, while arts industries, workers in the arts and those in the creative sector have struggled with very little support, we still see no money flowing.

I was puzzled about this, so a couple of weeks ago I asked the head of the Prime Minister's own department about it, as part of the Senate's COVID committee. Under questioning, the departmental secretary said, 'No money's going to flow until after restrictions have lifted.' That is simply not good enough. That is not what the Prime Minister had promised. It's not what he told Guy Sebastian he was going to do. And it's certainly not in the spirit of the announcement that he made.

Now, why does this matter? It matters because the reason our Australian artists are struggling right now is the restrictions themselves. That is why the arts and entertainment industry has been amongst the hardest hit. As soon as those restrictions were put in place in March, entire shows, productions and events were shut down overnight. People lost their jobs. They've lost income and they've lost access to insurance, and, of course, because of the nature of the gig-to-gig type of environment that they work in, the JobKeeper supplement has not been made accessible to many of these workers or businesses. So artists have largely been left out by JobKeeper, and now they are not even getting the money they were promised.

It seems that under this government's watch words are fine but action is lacking. As long as they can get a photo op with a few celebrities, they think they've done their job. Well, it is not good enough. Australian artists can see this for what it is. The Australian people can see this for what it is. What's next? Will the Prime Minister line up a press conference with Tina Arena? Is that what he's looking for? He wants to stand there with Tina Arena and say, 'Yes. Sorry, we did promise the money. We'll try again.'

We can't trust this government. They just don't care about Australian artists, the music industry, the festival industry, our authors and our First Nations artists. These are all people who are struggling right now. A press conference with a few celebrities might look good for the nightly news, but it sure as hell doesn't deliver the support that's needed.

This government needs to think very carefully. We are on the brink of losing an entire generation of artists in this country. Six months on, no money has flowed. It is precisely during the restrictions that money is needed to ensure that businesses can stay afloat, that workers can be paid and that artists can keep paying their bills while continuing to create. It is precisely during the restrictions that this support is needed, so I ask the minister again to take on notice and to think very carefully: is it really the view of this government that no money will flow to Australian artists until restrictions are lifted?

If that is the case, this whole package is a sham. If that is the case, it is quite true that this government doesn't care about artists, it doesn't care about the creative industries in this country and it simply doesn't get the cultural and artistic value to our society and our broader community.

Question agreed to.