Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the first in a series of bills that will support the implementation of Australia's national cultural policy, Revive. This is really exciting. As someone who has cultural studies as their field of academic practice, this is really thrilling to me on a personal level.

This first bill, the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023, amends the Australia Council Act 2013 to support the implementation of the national cultural policy. This bill will allow the Australia Council to operate under the name Creative Australia. This expands the functions of the Australia Council to support the upcoming establishment of the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, Music Australia, Writers Australia and the First Nations first body. This is an important early step to realise Revive, our new cultural policy for the nation. It's really important to reflect that it's always Labor, under prime ministers Whitlam, Gillard and now Albanese, who lead the way in cultural policy in this country.

As I said in my first speech in this place, the arts enrich us all and make our communities more vibrant places to live. In my electorate of Chisholm we have much-loved galleries, including Artspace, The Track and the Monash Gallery of Art, and enthusiastic community artists in all the art disciplines. There are regular music gigs across my electorate, including at the iconic Notting Hill Hotel and at the university campuses in Chisholm, at Deakin and Monash. There are academic courses in the arts right across my electorate at the universities and at TAFEs.

Every day, people engage in music lessons, fine arts lessons, ballet lessons, drama lessons and other forms of creative practice. Something I really love about the arts and encouraging young people to be creative is that you never know where it will take people. For instance, someone who started out in the arts at a young age in my electorate grew up to be Flea, of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It's amazing, the people that come through our suburbs and undertake cultural practice every single day. Our TAFE campuses equip people with skills to work in technical roles in the arts.

It's always a pleasure in my electorate to attend a performance at the Alexander Theatre and the other spaces we have. Just last week, I attended Artspace, in Box Hill, and saw their terrific On the Street exhibition, featuring recognisable sites in the area but seen, again, in a creative way, celebrating the everyday and the spectacle that is the local community. The familiar became new, fresh and considered in a different way by the artists. I commend everyone who contributed to that exhibition for their vision.

In late February I also had the enormous privilege of opening the smART exhibition at the Track Gallery, which is in its fifth year. It's a show designed for new, emerging and established community artists to platform their art. I spoke about our cultural policy at the opening at the gallery. I was so pleased to have had such rich conversations with the community at the viewing and reception about just why the creative arts matter. There was so much joy and relief that we now have a federal government that wants the arts to thrive.

The arts are an important part of our communities. It is high time that we as a nation have a creative policy that seeks to ensure the sector thrives, seeks to ensure that there is diversity in the sector and that recognises the oldest continuous culture in the world and the contribution that First Nations people in this country have made and continue to make to creative practice.

Since 1975 the Australia Council has been the principal Commonwealth arts investment and advisory body, with a strong profile in the arts sector. It supports and promotes creative arts practice that is recognised nationally and internationally, and provides research and advocacy on issues affecting the sector.

The centrepiece of our national cultural policy is the establishment of Creative Australia. This means strengthened capacity of the Australia Council, better strategic oversight across the sector and a way to ensure that funding decisions are made on the basis of artistic merit and at arm's length from government. It will also include the establishment of independent bodies and funds for First Nations arts and culture, for contemporary music and for writers, as well as a centre for arts and entertainment workers.

The implementation of the Australia Council reforms under the national cultural policy will be staged to allow for necessary consultation. We are a consultative government. It is really important that we undertake that process, but we do need to get some elements through with this bill so that we are able to take the next step. This is the first step of several that will really give life to this revived national cultural policy.

This bill provides for the Australia Council to operate under the name Creative Australia as an interim measure. Additional functions in this bill will also enable the Australia Council to commence work on the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, and Music Australia. A follow-up bill will be introduced later this year to establish Creative Australia as a new organisation and to formally establish Music Australia and the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces within it. These bodies will be critical in building partnerships and expertise to support artists and benefit us all.

Music Australia will support the Australian music industry to grow, including through industry partnerships and initiatives, research, training, skills development and export promotion, so we can really showcase to the world the amazing talent that we have in Australia.

This bill will also provide authority for Creative Australia to deliver the functions of Creative Partnerships Australia. This is really important to attract and recognise public sector, private sector, philanthropic and commercial support for, and investment in, the arts and to undertake research on all of that.

This bill also allows Creative Australia to assume responsibility for the Australian Cultural Fund from 1 July this year, which includes all the donations made to the fund prior to the transfer. Through this legislation Creative Australia will assume responsibility of assisting Australian artists and art organisations to attract and maintain support from donors and businesses, diversifying their sources of revenue, and of encouraging and celebrating innovation and excellence in giving to, and partnerships with, the arts and cultural sector.

This legislation is also about setting up the foundation to do more to support creative workplaces. The Raising their voices report—an inquiry into the music industry by the charity Support Act—made clear that there is, unfortunately, a prevalence of harassment, discrimination and bullying within the music industry. In 2021 over 30 artists, workers and leaders from across the Australian contemporary music industry came together to address that prevalence. It is clear that there needs to be more support for arts workers to ensure that the culture in the industry is changed, like other workplaces seek to do, including this parliamentary workplace.

This bill expands the functions of the Australia Council to allow for the upcoming establishment of the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, which will be incredibly important in ensuring that the harmful culture described in the Raising their voices report is addressed and workers in the creative industries are adequately supported. Given the nature of creative work and the fact that gig work is a dominant form of employment for many parts of the sector, having a centre dedicated to promoting positive and safe workplace culture is really critical to ensuring that everyone, even if they work across multiple workplaces, is supported while doing their work. The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will work with artists, industry workers and employers to raise and maintain standards, to improve remuneration and safety for all art forms and arts organisations, and to ensure matters are referred to relevant authorities as appropriate. The centre will, very importantly, ensure that under our cultural policy such companies not adhering to those standards will be prevented from receiving government funding. The standard we walk past is the standard we accept, after all. I'm so proud of our government's commitment to improving the quality of Commonwealth investment in the arts sector.

We're also committed to ensuring that the access to support for arts organisations and artists is stronger and sleeker with more streamlined access through a properly resourced Creative Australia. It is really exciting that, from 1 July this year, with the passage of this bill, initiatives to strengthen the arts sector and to do more to support artists and arts organisations will commence, and we will take those first steps to give life to our new cultural policy for the nation. I just know that this new vision for a creative Australia will unlock so much potential in our communities, suburbs, regions and cities right across Australia and will bring people such inspiration and joy and enrich us all. I'm so proud to support this bill today.

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