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

by leave—I too would like to acknowledge the member for Mallee as the new chair of our committee for coming into the committee and taking over from the member for Lyne. It's not an easy task to do, to steer a committee through the end of an inquiry, but it was one which she handled very well and I, along with all the members of the committee, appreciate her leadership. I acknowledge the member for Lyne in his efforts to steer us through this inquiry—a really important inquiry. And, of course, I acknowledge all of the hardworking staff in the secretariat, who do such a wonderful job and make our work look good throughout the committee inquiry process.

At the very start of the pandemic, when the Prime Minister announced that gatherings would be limited to under 500 people, it meant, for many in the creative sector, the end of six months work in fewer than six seconds. It meant that this pandemic took away so much from many in the creative sector. What this inquiry sought to do was to work collaboratively—between the Labour Party and the government—to work out what could be done to help this really vital sector get back on its feet. I acknowledge all members of the committee in their efforts and I acknowledge the deputy chair, the member for Dobell, and of course my friend the member for Perth, who both worked diligently on this inquiry with all members of the committee. I think we all share a deep desire to see this sector back on its feet, but there is important work that needs to be done.

Before I touch on some of the additional comments that have been made by the Labour Party, I want to briefly mention a few recommendations that Labour think are really important that the government should adopt, that go above and beyond the recommendations outlined by the chair. The first—beyond the national cultural plan, which I think is a really important recommendation—is the establishment of a national centre of Indigenous culture and arts and ensuring that that is co-designed with Indigenous communities and First Nations people. We have national artistic institutions, but I think this would be a fantastic thing and a source of national pride in a culturally significant place that would be able to tell Australia's long history—thousands of years of history—in a way that people can access, enjoy and celebrate.

The other significant recommendation that we managed to agree on in a bipartisan way was that the Office of the Arts be re-established as a named department in itself. It was significant and symbolic that the government decided to take out the named department of the arts and insert it and bury it within the Department of Transport and Infrastructure. What the Department of Transport and Infrastructure has to do with our creative sectors, I'm still learning—and I still haven't yet been told in a convincing way what it has to do with it. But the committee, in a bipartisan way, agreed—and I thank the government members for this—that we should have in Australia a re-established named department of the arts to give it the proper significance that it deserves.

And I hear the member for Mackellar agrees with that recommendation. Another important recommendation that the committee made was that the Australian Bureau of Statistics better account for the workers in the creative sector that are working in gig economies across the creative and cultural sectors, especially those who are doing unpaid and low-paid work. This is an important group of people that we need to better account for.

I want to go briefly to some of the additional comments that have been made by the Labour members of this committee, above and beyond the recommendations made by the bipartisan committee. First of all, JobKeeper was a really important program but it was clearly designed in a way where too many in the creative sector were left out. A key point that we wish to make is that that the newly established department of the arts should be consulted in any decision around any future wage subsidy program so as to ensure that members in this creative sector and in the creative industries in Australia are not left behind and are not sidelined in the way in which they were under the design of the JobKeeper subsidy. We recognise that almost half of those in the creative sector were left off the JobKeeper program.

There must be an insurance scheme for the events sector. This sector needs confidence, it needs time and it needs certainty. An insurance scheme is pivotal to be able to get the events sector back on its feet, and we absolutely believe that the government needs to do more in this regard. The government should be fully funding the ABC. We should not be squeezing this national institution. We should not be cutting funding to this institution that helps tell Australian stories and helps create Australian dramas and Australian creative production.

We should be removing the efficiency dividend from our national institutions. We should not be squeezing money out of our national agencies that are here to help tell Australian stories and celebrate Australian culture and identity. We should be properly funding the Australia Council. The funding for the arts should not be another slush fund for the Liberal Party. The Australia Council is a proud bipartisan institution that is industry led, and we should be funding it in a way that gives it the full power to help build up not just the major institutions but the small, independent and local institutions that make our communities sing and celebrate the wonderful local stories.

The final thing I'll mention is to go above and beyond for development in our gaming sector. We have amazing Australian talent developing video games and gaming productions in Australia. The government has done some important work in increasing the tax offsets, and I absolutely acknowledge that, but we should not just settle for that; we should be looking at ways to help bring Australian games to the world, to celebrate our Australian talent and to export our Australian products to the world market, because there is a big market out there. We could be doing more to support our gaming sector, especially our indie gaming sector.

On that, I say that this has been a really important inquiry where we have worked collaboratively, and I acknowledge the government members for the work that they have done. I thank my colleagues in the Labor Party. I fully commend the report to this place and say that the recommendations are important but we on this side believe that the government can and should go above and beyond them as well.

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