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

I rise to speak to on the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023 today, a piece of legislation that the Greens will be supporting. But I want to put on the record first up just how long the Australian arts community and creative industry has waited for a proper cultural policy in this country. For over a decade or more, Australian artists and creative workers have been sidelined. Year after year, in budget after budget, the government hasn't just ignored them; in a number of ways, under the previous government, they were actively undermined and attacked. I remember standing in this very place only eight or nine years ago when the arts community in this country was under a full-blown attack from the then minister responsible, Senator George Brandis, with what are infamously now referred to as the 'Brandis cuts'. This industry, these creative workers, our Australian artists, the cultural heart of the nation, has never actually recovered.

This bill before us today goes some way towards starting to repair the over a decade-long damage to our creative industry and artists. Our cultural institutions, like the National Gallery and National Library, have been starved of funding. Then, in turn, our communities, our children, our educators and our thinkers have been starved of their effective resources.

We know that when COVID-19 hit our economy and impacted on our communities it was our creative workers who were hit the hardest. Again, they were ignored and sidelined by previous government responses. Artists, who were already fragile and vulnerable to even the smallest of economic bumps, were left suffering, with very little to rely on—little savings, little infrastructure and very little care from the previous government.

This particular bill should be fairly uncontroversial, but it does present a big idea. That is that art matters, that artists matter, that artists' jobs matter and that, if we are to be a bright, smart, resourceful, innovative country, a nation that is prepared for the future challenges, we need a strong foundation of supporting creativity, creative thought and artistic talent. That is a big idea. Whether it is music, performance, visual art, photography, challenging debate or seeing our own lives reflected on our screens as a mirror of who we are and what we aspire to be, it is a big idea that these are foundations for a smart, innovative nation.

This is only the first plank in this government's proposed cultural policy. So much more work needs to be done. We need to have the funding aligned with this agenda. We need to make sure that our cultural institutions, who are on the bare bones of their backsides right now, have the support not just to fix the leaky roofs to protect their billion-dollar collections but so that they can open their doors and their resources to the next generation. We need funding for our cultural institutions to be prioritised. I presume that we will have that debate with the upcoming budget.

We will need to have further conversations about how we support storytelling in this nation, whether that's through song or through our television screens and digital devices. We're going to have those battles coming forward. I want to put on the record today that up until now, so far, my conversations with the government have been very positive and very constructive, but don't think for one second that the Greens will simply roll over and think that this job is done, because it is not.

We have to prioritise artists in this country like never before if we want to deal with the big challenges we have for our future. It is creativity that drives innovation, connection and understanding. Fostering creativity is essential for any nation that wants to be at the forefront of the next industrial revolution. I say to Minister Tony Burke today: 'I will be there to help you prioritise this big agenda, but don't go weak on me now. Don't go weak; stand strong. In the cabinet room have debates over what needs to be funded, why it's worth it and why the soul, heart and creative beat of this nation need to be at the forefront once more.' Don't come in here after the May budget has been handed down and say, 'We just didn't have the money,' because it's about priorities.

I think every child in this country deserves access to art classes and to music and the ability to expand, enhance and understand their creativity. Every child in this country deserves to learn about art at school. Every child in this country deserves the opportunity to learn music. That is the big thinking we need after this legislation has been passed. If we're going to put in place the Creative Australia agency, we need to back it up with money and back it up with policy priority.

I say this as a proud South Australian. Those in this chamber who have never been to Adelaide in March have missed out on the best few weeks ever. Over these last few weeks the city of Adelaide has been celebrating the very essence of art and creativity. I give a big shout-out to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which sold over a million tickets this year—the largest festival in this country and the second largest of its kind in the world, after Edinburgh. There was the WOMAD music festival—sold out. So, while creativity is fundamental to the heartbeat and soul of our nation, it also underpins the economic foundation of my home town in Adelaide, and I'm incredibly proud of that. But I want to see this grow; I want to see this continue.

I say to the government: don't just put up policies that sound nice on paper, that look good in the glossy pamphlets; let's fund this properly. Don't come in here on budget day saying you couldn't find the money, because we all know where the money's currently going. It's going to the stage 3 tax cuts and some weapons-grade nuclear powered submarines. That's not going to build a smart nation. That's not going to invest in our children's creativity so they can be the innovators of the future.

We need a huge investment in skills and training and creativity in this country. We have a massive opportunity, and it's not just about starting it at school, although I reiterate that every child in this country should have the opportunity to do art, to do music and to learn the capacity to think critically through creativity. But, once they've been through school, we need our educational institutions to value creativity and to be funded to also train and teach in the creative sectors. Our educational institutions in the creative industry right now are struggling, and they need investment and they need support. There is a huge drought in skilled, trained, creative workers, and in this nation we are missing out on harnessing their power and we need to get that right.

So I say again to the minister: good start; let's finish it with proper funding and proper support. I look forward to getting into the detail of these issues with the Senate inquiry that we have established through the environment and communications Standing Committee, because this issue is not just about art in this country; this is about what kind of economy we want and the strength of the future economy—a decarbonised economy. It is about the strength and level of education of the next generation, and it is about Australia wrestling with the ability to tell our own stories: who we want to be, where we have come from and where we want to go.

I'm sick and tired, every time the government wants to claim some win about funding the arts—that they've handed a bunch of cash to some Hollywood film that's come here to shoot for six months, and that's it; or to subsidise some rock concert by Guns N' Roses. That's fine—of course let's have Guns N' Roses in Australia—but what are we doing to fund and support Australian musicians? What Australian shows, particularly in relation to kids television, are we supporting? So there's a long way to go here, and I'm just putting this government on notice. Art does matter. It needs to be funded, and we'll have this battle in the budget.