Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Heritage, the Arts and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I will, Madam Deputy Speaker. We were committed to securing the future of Australia’s small to medium performing arts companies with funding boosts in the 2004-05 and 2007-08 budgets, providing $7.8 million per year to 60 small to medium arts organisations. As I keep saying, Labor has slashed that funding, demanding a two per cent efficiency dividend overall, and of course it has taken away the international touring opportunities for any performers who wish to take their talents offshore. Then there was the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s funding slash. They can no longer put forward their international competition and their masterclasses—something they had become internationally famous for.

We had enhanced the stability of Australia’s 20 major performing arts companies, which benefited their combined audience of around 2.4 million Australians, including one million children. The 2.4 million Australian audience was a direct result of their better resourcing. Even more importantly than the better resourcing, we had ensured the stability or security of ongoing funding. Without that security, our 20 major performing arts companies are in serious jeopardy.

We provided $6 million over four years, from 2007-08, for the Bundanon Trust. We had developed and extended the visual arts and craft strategy to support artists, galleries, Indigenous visual arts centres and contemporary art exhibitions. Until three months ago, that coalition strategy had resulted in a 23 per cent increase in the earnt income of the organisations, a 98 per cent increase in public programs and a 41 per cent increase in gallery visiting numbers. We are very proud of those achievements of the John Howard government in the visual arts and craft strategy area.

What have we had in the first three months, or 100 days, of Labor? As I have said to you, we have seen funding slashed, we have seen the heart taken out of young performers’ futures and, in particular, we have seen a constraining of international exposure for our artists as our Australia on the World Stage program was slashed. As I said to you before, to ensure that generations of young musicians could develop their talents through the Australian Youth Orchestra, we provided $1.9 million over four years. We do not know about that funding’s future. We certainly do know that the Young and Emerging Artists Fund, which commenced in 1996 and needs re-funding from June this year, is in limbo.

We also supported the National Institute of Dramatic Art to the tune of $4.8 million over four years. NIDA—in the minister’s own electorate—waits with bated breath to see if it will be able to continue to be pre-eminent in Australia, training not only some of what have turned out to be the world’s best actors but also the producers, the makers of costumes and the interpreters of great and new works. All of that, as I say, is in limbo.

I will end with a quotation from the minister himself which I think is rather compelling. The minister, Mr Garrett, said:

I think most people who have ever had a go at writing a poem or doing a painting realise it’s very hard to do it well, but at the same time, for artists, it’s a choiceless act, although you’re choosing to do it because it’s your vocation.

You need more than a vocation; you need Australian government funding support. Arts can never be financially self-sufficient right across the board. I ask the minister to rethink his funding cuts. (Time expired)

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