Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just about every medium and small arts organisation in my electorate has approached me with concerns about the decision by the Minister for the Arts to take $104 million in arts funding from the Australia Council for the Arts in order to establish the National Program for Excellence in the Arts. Under this new funding arrangements, only one arts organisation in the whole of Tasmania has been guaranteed funding, and that is the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. I certainly support the full and ongoing funding of the TSO, but the changes now leave all other Tasmanian arts organisations deeply worried about their futures. Take, for example, the Terrapin Puppet Theatre. Terrapin is a Tasmanian institution and has been performing for thousands of schoolchildren for the past 35 years. Indeed, pretty much anyone you speak to who has completed their education in Tasmania can recall seeing one or more of Terrapin's exceptional performances. But yet, despite this remarkable track record, the puppet theatre's viability is now in question because of the arts funding changes announced earlier this year.

I acknowledge that the arts minister's staff met with me last week to discuss this matter, and I am grateful for the time of the minister's chief of staff, Paul O'Sullivan. I note that Mr O'Sullivan assured me that under the new arts funding arrangement the process will in fact be more effective for smaller arts bodies, as such organisations will be better able to compete on merit for funding. In other words, the government is arguing that the new process will be more democratic. But I have to say that I am very sceptical of the government's position and will remain so until there is firm evidence that National Program for Excellence in the Arts is in fact superior to leaving all that money with the Australia Council for the Arts.

I think, for now at least, that the popular view that this change in funding arrangements simply creates a slush fund for the minister is entirely warranted. The challenge for him is to prove me wrong and to do so quickly, because I have countless arts organisations at my doorstep not being able to plan for the future and fearing that projects they have built up over the years are about to be lost.

The Tasmanian arts community is more vibrant and dynamic than ever, but it has not yet achieved its full potential, and that means the inherent value of the art is still to be realised, as is the arts-led economic revival it promises. Tassie arts need a better deal.