Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have many questions for the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts today in this consideration in detail stage, and they all focus on the fact that this government is doing too little to support our artists in some of the most difficult times that they have ever experienced. We all remember, at the start of this pandemic, when the Prime Minister made the announcement about the restrictions on gatherings. That was in the early days, when the Prime Minister was still involved in decision-making on the pandemic. He completely removed himself from that, but that's a story for another day.

Why did this government race to go and do a press conference with Guy Sebastian in June last year but then wait until the end of the financial year to bother to start paying artists and supporting artistic and creative organisations in this country? The arts and entertainment sector in this country is worth $100 billion to the economy. Hundreds of thousands of Australians work in the arts and entertainment sector. Bar none, this last year has been the most difficult year for all of them. Yet this government was more interested in doing press conferences with Guy Sebastian—who had to end up publicly justifying that press conference—because this government, like it always does, was all about the announcement and not about the delivery. Not about actually supporting artists or actually getting the money out the door; only about doing the flashy announcement and getting the Prime Minister to do his photo op—not in a truck or a plane, but with Guy Sebastian this time.

Why is the government leaving artistic Australians behind? Why is the government leaving creative industries and creative businesses behind? Why did this government choose to deliberately design the JobKeeper program so that it excluded those working in the creative industries? The very nature of the creative industries means that the people working in them are often in short-term project work. It means that you're not often in a job, a production or a film for any more than a few months. That's the nature of the work. It means it's unstable. I know that there are members on the opposite side who are well aware of how difficult it is to make it as an artist in this country. But that then begs the question: why did the government design a wage subsidy program that would mean that those Australians would be disconnected from the very organisations that they were associated with and disconnected from businesses?

If you want to see exactly where the priorities lie for this government when it comes to the creative industries and when it comes to the department of the arts, if you want to see exactly what this government thinks and how much it values the department of the arts and the creative industries in Australia—if they actually valued it, it would still be a standalone department; it wouldn't be tucked away in a back drawer somewhere in the department of infrastructure and transport. What on earth do transport and infrastructure have to do with the arts, unless you're building a road to a new theatre? It boggles me. I don't get it. Why are we in this country turning artists into, somehow, a function of the department of transport and infrastructure? It makes no sense and it shows that the government doesn't value artists and doesn't value those people working in the creative industries in this country. If they did value artists in this country, they would show them the respect of having their own department, not burying it in the back drawer of the department of transport and infrastructure.

The final question I have for the minister is around the events sector. The events sector are absolutely on their knees at the moment. The events sector saw what happened as we came out of the pandemic second wave last year and had a little bit of stability over summer when they set up the Byron Bay Bluesfest, and then they had to cancel it after one COVID case. They saw the damage of what this pandemic can do to a massive event like that. What have they asked for from the government? They've asked for some sort of assistance around insurance so that, if they do schedule programs and they do schedule these massive events, there will be some form of insurance so that these companies aren't liable for everything. This government has been silent on it. Too little, too late. It's all about the announcement, not about the delivery, and then they bury the department of the arts in the department of transport and infrastructure, leaving Australian artists behind.

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