Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker; it's appropriate for the speech. The private members' motion of my colleague the member for Perth raises the importance of the arts to the national economy and to employment, and highlights the constant fight by artists to be recognised and funded accordingly.

However, in addition to Australia's arts sector being an essential part of the economy, the arts and, more broadly, culture are also intrinsic to what it means to be human. They are part of our identity and our expression of who we are as individuals, as a community and as a nation. COVID-19 has devastated the livelihoods of thousands of working artists, yet, ironically, the arts and artists have been crucial to keeping Australians connected and sane during the worst of the pandemic and will continue to play a vital role in rebuilding both our economy and our battered psyches.

The arts and those who create and develop them deserve a national strategy of recognition, support and nurturing. Research from the Australian Council for the Arts has shown that prior to the pandemic almost every Australian, some 98 per cent of us, was engaging in the arts in some way, and 63 per cent of Australians believe that arts and culture should be financially supported. During the pandemic, 73 per cent of Australians have said that the arts have improved their mood and quality of life. These figures all suggest that a comprehensive public investment in arts and culture is indeed in the public's interests.

The COVID-19 situation has resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of expected income across the sector. This is all the more alarming now, given that a great deal of the arts sector were not eligible for the various government subsidies. Data released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in April showed that the arts and recreation sector has been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than half—some 53 per cent—of businesses ceasing to operate. The coalition government's 2020-21 budget reinforced its disregard for Australia's arts and cultural workers. Despite the Treasurer's promise in the budget announcement last week to prioritise jobs, his speech made no mention of the job-rich arts sector, despite it being the first and worst hit sector. The $250 million support package committed in June 2020, which will do little to restore confidence in the arts sector, is yet to come to fruition for any arts organisation. This comes off the back of disproportionate exclusions from existing income support measures, cuts to local content quotas for Australian TV and heavy increases to fees for arts and humanities degrees.

The arts and culture make a substantial contribution to the Australian economy that this government is supposedly committed to rebuilding. In Australia, there are 48,000 practising professional artists, 57,477 people employed in the arts and 600,000 people employed in the broader $111.7 billion cultural and creative activity sector. The arts-and-culture sector is a bigger industry than agriculture and employs more people than the oil, gas and mining industries. For every million dollars in turnover the arts-and-entertainment sector creates nine jobs, as opposed to just one in mining and 0.36 in oil and gas extraction. The central importance of the arts industry to the national economy is stressed further when you consider its intrinsic relationship with tourism, accommodation and hospitality. These industries rely on the arts and culture for their own success, especially in regional areas.

The member for Perth's motion is focused on ensuring that professional artists and cultural practitioners, be they individuals or companies, are given adequate support to re-establish themselves and their livelihoods. This is not just about professional arts, however, but an important way to ensure that community art and cultural development is also kept alive and thriving. In my view, not only do we need to recognise the central economic importance of the arts but we need to move beyond that to broaden our horizons and to establish a separate department, and indeed a ministry, of arts and culture.

At this critical time, our cultural maturity should be at the forefront of public policy. The pandemic has forced us, as it has all other nations, to consider our national identity and our place in the world. The growing demands to confront racism and inequality are matters that go to the heart of culture. Arts-and-culture policy is crucial to genuine reconciliation, multiculturalism, human rights and a truly inclusive nation. I commend the motion to the House.

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