Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak to the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023, which will make several important changes to the mandate and functioning of the Australia Council for the Arts. These changes are a significant step in the implementation of our new national cultural policy: Revive. The policy, Revive, has been informed by the concerns, insights and ambitions of Australia's arts community, with whom the Minister for the Arts and I have been in close dialogue since the Albanese government took office.

The creation of the Australia Council for the Arts, in 1975, was a signature reform of the Whitlam government in terms of cultural policy. It replaced a number of pre-existing bodies and created a single statutory agency. It was founded on the basic principle that artists, not politicians, should be at the centre of funding decisions. The creation of the Australia Council not only increased funding in the arts but also introduced a more focused strategy to the federal government's investment in Australians' creativity. In introducing the first Australia Council bill, Prime Minister Whitlam said:

It will be the first task of the Council to promote excellence in the arts. Next, we want it to provide opportunities for people to practise the arts and for the public to appreciate and enjoy them. We want to promote the general application of the arts in the community and foster the expression of a national identity by means of the arts. We want to uphold the right of everyone to freedom of artistic expression. We want to promote a knowledge and appreciation of Australian arts in other countries. We want to promote incentives for, and recognition of, achievement in the arts.

They are an amazing set of words. At the time that Whitlam said them, there was an urgent need for intervention. For decades, creative Australians have been taking their ambitions to more supportive environments overseas. The increased local support provided through the Australia Council helped to stop this outgoing tide of Australian talent and allowed Australian artists to realise their ambitions in their own country.

For more than five decades, the Australia Council has built and maintained the faith of Australia's arts community. It has nurtured the careers of generations of artists and arts workers. It has supported the creation of countless powerful works of music, visual arts, dance, theatre, literature and other art forms. It has given Australians improved access to cultural experiences and brought Australian art to the world. Its place at arm's length from government and removed from political interference has allowed it to act as a guarantor for freedom of expression in Australia. This independence has been fundamental to the council's credibility and effectiveness. In a healthy democracy, we should expect to see public funds spent on creative works that extend boundaries, that are challenging and that, at times, make politicians feel uncomfortable.

From the very beginning, the Australia Council has been a forceful and effective champion of First Nations' cultural expression. The Australia Council Aboriginal Arts Board was one of the very first instances in which self-determination was integrated into the structures of government. The Australia Council not only funds the creation and presentation of artistic work but also provides research and advocacy on issues affecting the cultural sector. It develops artists' capacity, skills and networks in order to expand markets and audiences for Australian creative work.

The Albanese government recognises the value of this legacy and the enormous benefits of public investment in the arts. That's why we want to equip the agency to be as effective as it can be for the years ahead. This bill takes the first step in the strengthening and the modernisation of the Australia Council for the Arts. These reforms will amount to the most significant changes to the organisation in its history. The bill will enable the Australia Council to operate under its new name: Creative Australia. Whether or not the arts community will let go of the nickname 'AusCo' remains to be seen. The governing board of Creative Australia will continue to be known as 'the Australia Council'.

The bill will also enable the Australia Council to commence work on the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces from 1 July this year. This is an important and really urgent expansion to the Australia Council's mandate.

On 1 September 2022, the Raising their voices report was released. It detailed the scale and severity of sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination and other forms of harm within the music industry. The findings detailed in the Raising their voices report were harrowing, but, sadly, they were not surprising. The problems raised in the report have been an open secret for a long time, and action on these issues is long overdue. The experiences of those who provided evidence for the report needed to be heard and acted on. One respondent described a manager who was 'notorious for hiring young women'. They said:

You're made to feel you were so lucky to be working there. He had grossly sexual behaviour. If you resisted or said something about it, there would be retribution.

Another respondent left the music industry entirely, saying:

Music saved my life so many times before, and now that it is being taken away. It's been devastating.'

The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will provide advice on issues of safety and welfare in the arts and entertainment sector. On pay, it will refer matters to relevant authorities. It will develop codes of conduct and resources for the sector. It will help set a higher standard. It will help ensure that artists and arts workers feel secure at work and that they are fairly treated. The government are establishing the centre because we recognise that the work of creative Australians matters and that they deserve to feel safe, no matter where that workplace is. The centre will provide funding to Support Act, to provide mental health services for those working in the music industry.

As Special Envoy for the Arts, I was tasked with assisting and consulting the arts community in preparation for Australia's new national cultural policy, Revive. One of the messages I heard time and time again from the whole industry was that they needed a new body to provide strategic leadership, particularly for Australian music. We listened to that message, so this bill provides for the creation of Music Australia, within Creative Australia, from 1 July this year.

Music Australia will bring the major stakeholders, both artists and industry representatives, around one table. It will grow the market for contemporary Australian music. It will look at increasing the development of original music through investment in artistic creation. It'll deliver songwriting and recording initiatives in schools. It'll develop new strategic partnerships within and beyond the music sector, including to undertake research and data collection around key issues such as festivals and venues. It'll provide ongoing support for Sounds Australia, Australia's export music market development initiative. It'll support industry professionals to learn business and management skills—this is something that's come up time and time again in inquiries I've done. It'll provide central coordination around access to live music venues for bands and solo artists and develop new co-investment agreements with states, territories and the industry to deliver national sector-wide priorities. It'll create community music hubs in high-density living areas.

Music Australia has a big task, and I want to thank all of the individual musicians, music producers and industry organisations whose input has shaped Music Australia. I particularly want to thank the Association of Artist Managers, the Australian Festival Association, the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association, the Australian Live Music Business Council, the Australian Music Centre, the Australian Music Industry Network, the Australasian Music Publishers' Association, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, PPCA, CrewCare, the Live Music Office, Live Performance Australia, the Music Producer and Engineers Guild, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Music Office, OneMusic, Sounds Australia, Support Act, and The Push.

The third element of this bill is to transfer the functions of Creative Partnerships Australia to Creative Australia. The state has a responsibility to nurture creative endeavour, but without diminishing the role of government. We do want to encourage philanthropic support for the arts. The transfer of Creative Partnerships Australia will leverage the Australia Council's expertise and bring together arts philanthropy and arts funding within the one entity. This will create synergies between public and private partnerships, as well as government and philanthropic investment. Through this legislation, Creative Australia will assume responsibility to assist Australian artists and arts organisations to attract and maintain support from donors and businesses, diversifying their sources of revenue, and it will encourage and celebrate innovation and excellence in giving to, and partnerships with, the arts and cultural sector.

The measures contained within this bill are just the first steps in the delivery of Australia's new national cultural policy, Revive. Another new significant measure is the restoration of the $199 million in funding to the Australia Council. This funding will mean more support across all art forms, including underfunded areas like youth arts, small to medium-sized organisations and independent artists. The policy's objective is that there's a place for every story and a story for every place. This has simply not been possible with the arts sector living on basic rations, as it has been for nearly the last decade. The best, boldest and most powerful creative work is not produced by an arts sector in survival mode. This uplift will reverse the brutal Brandis cuts that devastated the arts community and came without any warning or consultation. The Brandis cuts hit individual artists and the small to medium sector particularly hard. These organisations are essential to the health of the arts ecosystem, but many simply don't survive. The Community Arts Network in WA commented:

We have operated in WA for 30 years and have witnessed, and responded to, many changes that have threatened our sector. There is nothing however that rivals the instability, upheaval and "vacuum" created by the recent withdrawal of almost $105 million from the Australia Council for the Arts.

That's what they said at the time of the Brandis cuts. The funds raided from Australia's arts funding agency were diverted to projects favoured by the minister himself. In doing this, the previous government broke the decades-long consensus that arts funding decisions should be made at arm's length from government. Unlike the previous government, this government upholds the principle that artists themselves should make the decisions about artistic merit, not politicians.

The government will listen to, and work in partnership with, Australia's arts community. In my role as Special Envoy for the Arts I have continued the conversations that the Minister for the Arts and I started in preparation for the new national cultural policy. Only last week I visited Orange and had deep conversations with a range of people about how this policy will benefit them in their regional community but also about how they have survived this last decade and what they see as their vision for the future. As the Minister for the Arts has said many times before, we recognise that arts jobs are real jobs, and I certainly saw people who are working really hard to ensure that not only is there a vibrant arts community for the Central West but that they are accessing every bit of support they can for that community. This government respects the contribution that Australia's artists and arts workers make not just to our economy but to wellbeing, our sense of identity and our connection to each other. We don't regard the work of artists as an optional extra or an indulgence. It's a fundamental element of our society that enriches and empowers every Australian every day.

There are further steps to take in the modernisation of the Australia Council. The implementation of the Australia Council reforms under the national cultural policy will be staged to allow for proper consultation across the arts sector and to ensure a smooth transition. A staged approach will enable Creative Australia to responsibly scale up and implement new functions within available resources. Subsequent legislation will create a dedicated First Nations led board within Creative Australia which will give First Nations people autonomy over decisions and investments. Writers Australia will provide direct support to the literature sector for writers and publishers to grow local and international audiences for Australian books.

A strengthened, modernised and properly funded Creative Australia will be crucial to the realisation of the ambitions of Australia's arts community. I'm going to finish with the words of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1974:

I regard this Bill as an historic development in the promotion of the arts in Australia … I believe that the formation of an independent Australia Council will inaugurate a new era of vitality and progress in the arts, that creative artists of all kinds will enjoy a new measure of security and status in the community and that the Australian people as a whole will have new and wider opportunities to participate in the arts and enjoy the emotional, spiritual and intellectual rewards which the arts alone can provide.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023. I also want to use this as an opportunity to talk about some of the amazing artists and art groups in my community of Mayo. The arts contribute so positively, I think, to all of our communities and certainly to all of the communities across my electorate. They facilitate social harmony by providing an opportunity for individuals and groups to express themselves. The arts also maintain access to community and government funded institutions which preserve our cultural heritage and provide a platform for the curious to engage with various local histories.

I honestly think that, when we're talking about photographs and about history, we are talking about art. The National Library of Australia's digital record platform, Trove, serves as an institutional backbone for the preservation of our cultural heritage and our arts and allows many historical groups within my electorate to maintain their operations in the interest of educating and serving community members seeking greater knowledge of the past.

I'd like to provide context on Trove as a platform and how it has served my local community since its creation. Trove was launched online in 2009. It's the National Library's single business discovery project, and it creates that entry point for the nexus between history and art. It is a treasure trove. I am concerned that, when we're talking about this bill and when we're talking about funding arts, we are potentially missing that link and that that funding is currently under threat. It is a cultural institution, and it's unparalleled in its ability to enhance the knowledge of our various local histories and our community—of all of us, including our souls. I believe it's paramount that it should be continued.

I'd like to talk about some of the amazing organisations that I have in Mayo that, honestly, have just had the most difficult time through COVID. I'd like to just list some of those groups. Many of these are groups that work to support children in their artistic endeavours, but not all of them. Some of them are providing opportunities for amateur theatre as well as other mediums of art. When I'm talking about performing arts, I'm talking about Ink Pot Arts, the Stirling Players, the Yankalilla Youth Theatre, the Hills School of Theatre Arts, the Stirling Community Theatre, the Adelaide Hills Performing Arts Centre, the Adelaide Hills Arts, Rockit Performing Arts, Theatre Bugs, South Coast Choral and Arts Society, JamaeRaw School of Performing Arts, Fortuna House of Performing Arts, Fleurieu Dance Collective and—this one's really cute—Laughing Llama Dance and Drama based in Cherry Gardens. Cherry Gardens is a small community of mine. All of those performing arts groups live within Mayo, and all of them have managed to survive to varying degrees through COVID.

I think it's really important, when we're looking at this bill, that we don't just fund and focus on the very high end but that we make sure that there is funding for community and grassroots arts. I'd like to acknowledge some of the art programs that exist in my community and across South Australia. I'm really fortunate to have a lot of people in my electorate who are actually employed in the field of art. They are children's books illustrators. They are people like Silvio Apponyi. He's a sculptor. In fact one of his works is here in our Parliament House gardens. They are potters; they work in the fine arts and the visual arts. Then we have festivals like the SALA festival and Country Arts SA. We have wonderful facilities such as the Hahndorf Academy and the Top of the Torrens Gallery, which is in Birdwood and is run entirely by volunteers.

When we talk about fine arts and the making of artwork, we sort of forget about music and how important music is—live music, composing, local festivals. And I think it's going to be really important, when we're looking at funding the arts moving forward, that we don't forget about fantastic local organisations. In my community, I would say, very few people have ever got to the Sydney Opera House. In fact, not all of my community would even have been to the Adelaide Festival Centre. So we need to make sure that the arts are within reach for every Australian and that we fund the arts appropriately in that regard. Whether it's street art or volunteers who are working with young people, teaching them how to act, how to perform, it's critical that we put that focus in.

I recently met with Evette Wolf, who established the Yankalilla Youth Theatre. Evette's home has doubled for years as a makeshift storeroom for props and costumes used in the theatre productions. This has made it very difficult. It has made her home a tripping hazard. It's such a shame, when all she needs is a shed to be able to put the equipment in. She volunteers all of her time. She gives support to young people to improve their wellbeing—young people who don't necessarily fit into the mould of football or netball or other group sports. She provides a home and a safe space for those young people to thrive, and it's just so challenging.

For many years we've seen arts and the funding of arts as an afterthought, so I'm pleased that there is this significant investment here in the arts. But I do want to make sure that that filters down from the national galleries and the high end and goes all the way down to the community.

As I was saying, Yankalilla Youth Theatre just need a small storeroom. It would be their dream to actually have somewhere real to perform, some kind of amphitheatre. They're inspirational in what they do, and I want to support them in both of those dreams—to get a small shed to store things in without them getting wet and without them being in people's homes and, more broadly, to get a space where we can see performance down in the Fleurieu.

I'd like to talk about another group that operates within my community, the Stirling Players. Last year they celebrated 50 years of operation. I'm fortunate enough to be their patron, and I thoroughly enjoy attending their performances. The players provide an opportunity for people of all ages to come together, sharing a common passion to be involved in productions, either on or off stage. It's been a great starting ground for many young performers who have then gone on to brighter lights. This is the kind of thing that we need to be investing in. They shouldn't be needing to spend every other moment that they have, when are not performing, running fundraising just to be able to keep the electricity on.

Inkpot Arts is another example of local group which continues to grow and thrive within my community. This group offers workshops on a regular basis for children, young people and adults. Everything from drama to dance, creative writing and improv sessions is on offer, meaning there is truly something for everyone.

As I mentioned before, music is such a huge passion in my community. I am a true believer in live music, being the daughter of a muso. It's incredibly important that we support live music. We've already seen, across my electorate—and I think this is across much of South Australia and probably Australia—that pokies have, unfortunately, taken the place of live music in so many venues, particularly pubs, where people often get their start. Dining rooms and large areas with stages have been converted into pokie rooms, and it's left very little place for budding musos to play.

I would also like to mention—and I'm sure many people here in the chamber would know these two, because they've been on national television, on The VoiceElla and Sienna. They performed live on The Voice. They're two wonderful young women in my community. I've been lucky enough to see these women perform. I've seen them grow from quite young people and watched them take that significant step into the national spotlight. They've done that as all musos do—with very little support, apart from family support, and a true belief in themselves.

The benefit of creative arts cannot be understated. Time and again we are presented with findings that highlight a strong relationship between the development of cognitive capacity through visual arts and improvements in both academic and social performance. Our artistic experiences help to develop individual creativity and self-expression, along with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills we require through all stages of our life.

Henri Matisse said, 'Creativity takes courage,' and I could not agree more. I take courage from people who get up on stage and sing and dance and write. I will happily speak in front of thousands of people but you won't hear me belt out a tune, that's for sure! I take such courage and such value out of people who bear their soul and put their words to paper. It is this courage, which equips us with a capacity to accept anomalies and embrace the abstract, that allows us to engage with tested concepts and test the boundaries of what is possible.

I support this bill. It provides a platform on which to recognise the contribution of arts to our society and the way in which greater investment will allow all artistic pursuits, irrespective of origin or size or flourish. I would just say to the government: don't forget the communities and please don't forget regional arts.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to discuss the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023. Before I start on the detail of this bill, I do need to celebrate and congratulate two members of the electorate of Casey, which is rich with creative talent. Josh and Anya are in the top eight of the Australian Idol finals. To have two residents from Casey in the top eight of the whole nation is something we're really proud of. They're great young people. Josh is a local singer and songwriter, who grew up on a rose farm in Mount Evelyn, while Anya is a Selby local, growing up playing gigs in the hills at the Sooki Lounge in Belgrave. They're both brilliant in different ways, and I'm voting for both of them, and I encourage everyone out there to vote for both of them as well.

I had the chance last Friday to speak to both Josh and Anya, and it was amazing. You could just hear in their voices the passion that they've got for music and the arts. They're essentially, as they said, 'living the dream', and it's wonderful to see to two young Australians living their dream. That's what creative arts is about. It's about many things, but it is about allowing young people and those who have been in the industry for a long time to do something that they've got a deep passion and love for. I look forward to watching the rest of their journey.

I will move on, after congratulating Josh and Anya, to the bill that rebrands the Australia Council as Creative Australia as a result of the government's decision to transfer the functions of Creative Partnerships Australia to the Australia Council. Creative Partnerships Australia was established 10 years ago with the aim of attracting more philanthropic funding for the arts, and it has operated successfully ever since, yet the first thing Tony Burke did when he came into government was to abolish the agency. This bill is being promoted as implementing the government's national cultural policy, but in reality it doesn't do very much. Labor promised its national cultural policy would transform our arts sector, yet its policy is long on rhetoric and rather thin on specifics, and they fail to back it with serious funding support.

Labor released its national cultural policy, Revive, in January. It's a five-year plan for the arts and provides $286 million in additional funding to the arts over four years. However, according to media reports, at least $45 million of this comes from cancelling the former coalition government's Temporary Interruption Fund, meaning total new money is around $240 million, or $60 million a year at best, and much of the document is simply a reannouncement of what we knew was already happening. This bill follows the very standard Labor formula of having a very impressive sounding name while actually delivering very little. I'm a little concerned, to be honest, about the creation of the so-called Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces. It shows Mr Burke is keen to use the arts sector as a showcase for his wider agenda of increasing union power and entrenching restrictions on our economy.

The contrast with funding committed for the arts by former Liberal-National governments is stark. New funding commitments during our 2019-2022 term totalled $1.1 billion. Our Liberal-National government delivered record arts funding of over $1 billion, as I said. No other government, Labor or Liberal, has matched this level of funding for the arts, and that remains the case even after the announcement of Labor's new national cultural policy. This funding from the former government included programs like the RISE Fund, which supported arts companies, promoters, festivals and entrepreneurs to put no-shows on as the sector sought to rebuild from the challenges of COVID. I know there were many in the industry in Casey who benefited from this program. RISE funded more than 541 projects, 50 per cent of which were in rural and regional Australia, and created more than 213,000 job opportunities across Australia for experiences reaching more than 55 million Australians.

One thing I have noted about Labor's national cultural policy is that it contains no new funding for our national collecting institutions. Funding decisions to support these institutions have evidently been kicked down the road to the May budget. There have been a series of media reports about the funding needs of our collecting institutes, including the National Library of Australia's public digital service, Trove. I've had many residents in Casey write to me concerned about the funding for Trove, and I look forward to and will watch with interest any future announcements by the government on this. Again, the coalition has a proud record of investing in these institutions, including a funding boost of $5.7 million over two years to support and enhance the continuing operation of Trove through to 30 June 2023.

The policy also contains no new funding for our national performing arts organisations. These organisations are experiencing a change in behaviour, with audiences not purchasing tickets until the last minute, making it harder to return to financial stability. It was the coalition who invested over $50 million in these organisations through the Arts Sustainability Fund, which prevented many from closing their doors. It was the coalition who created a $50 million Temporary Interruption Fund to provide certainty for screen producers. It was the coalition who invested more than $370 million for Australian local content through the Australian Children's Television Foundation; Screen Australia; the production offset; the post, digital and visual effects offset; and the Temporary Interruption Fund. It was the coalition who raised the producer offset for television content from 20 per cent to 30 per cent so Australian producers received a greater rebate, making producing film and television content in Australia more attractive and affordable. It was the coalition who invested more than $47 million to digitise and preserve collection material held by the National Film and Sound Archive and seven other national collecting institutions and to maintain the National Library of Australia's Trove website. As I said, it's so important that we maintain this funding.

We understood during COVID and understand now how important the arts industry and culture are to the very essence of social community and the wellbeing of human beings. Our COVID-19 Creative Economy Support Package of nine measures across 2022 and 2021 provided over $500 million worth of investment, including the $220 million for the RISE—Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand—Fund and $21.4 million for regional arts, including $11.4 million to support arts and cultural development tourism experiences. We also provided $12 million to support Indigenous art centres and Indigenous art fairs in regional and remote Australia, delivered in full through the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program. We invested $540 million over the seven years to 2026-2027 through the location incentive, to attract domestic and international film and television productions to Australia. All of this was on top of the recurrent funding provided to the Australia Council, which stands at around $220 million a year; $260 million for our national collecting institutions; and over $80 million for Screen Australia.

In my electorate of Casey, we've a proud, passionate, thriving creative community, nurturing literature, fine arts, crafts and music through many organisations. One such organisation is the Dandenong Ranges Music Council. It's a community music organisation that was established in 1979. Its work focuses on the needs of communities who wish to listen, to learn, to perform and to create music in partnership with paid professional arts workers and artists. Bev McAlister established the council to enable all ages and abilities to participate and enjoy music in all its forms. Although Bev herself is not a musician, she appreciated and recognised the huge benefits music can bring to the community. Bev received her OAM in 1994 and received the Yarra Ranges shire's Mayor's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, both in recognition of her dedication to the Dandenong Ranges Music Council. I had the pleasure of meeting Bev last week and talking to her about this policy. I won't provide her feedback yet because she has to sign it off through the organisation, but what really was clear was her passion for our community and the arts and the inspiration that they provide her and many others in the Dandenongs. The projects that the Dandenong Ranges Music Council brings to the community include workshops and master classes with professional musicians, music lessons on a wide variety of instruments, concerts in which our communities can participate and music therapy sessions and performances for and by people with disabilities.

Community music is used to celebrate, to grieve, even to protest and to heal. It tells community stories of bushfires, of storms and of our cultural history, as well as of the issues of today and those of the future. It definitely played a big part in the Dandenong Ranges in particular, as the residents there recovered from the storms of 2021. The Dandenong Ranges Music Council has nine ensembles at the moment, from orchestral to swing, to strings, and artists with disabilities, and numerous projects on the go at any one time.

They encourage family participation in their projects. In fact, some local musicians had their first musical experiences as children with the DRMC. They've gone on to study and become music professionals and have returned to live in the local community, which keeps our community fresh and vibrant. This cross-generational aspect of what they do is really important.

We have other strong creative institutions. Burrinja is a great example. It's named after Lin Onus, an Indigenous artist who's no longer with us. I was fortunate growing up: my father was a painter and a sculptor, and he was good friends with Lin Onus. Lin lived in Upwey, and I had the pleasure of spending time at Lin's house with his family growing up. So it was a real treat when I went to Burrinja and found out that it's actually named after Lin. It's another example of our local community staying together.

The Ridges and Rivers project, which is being delivered by Yarra Ranges Council, is a $30 million project and investment partnership between the federal government, the state government, the local council and Bendigo Bank, which continues to support creative arts projects in Yarra Ranges and to bring tourism into our area. I had the fortunate opportunity to visit one of the 'lung walks', which is a display by Peter Mcilwain, in ngurrak barring, which is RidgeWalk, which means 'mountain paths'. It was a great example of how, in Casey, we can bring together the creative arts community and the natural environment that we have in the Dandenongs. There are many more great creative arts organisations in Casey. There's a strong music culture, celebrated by Bev, Josh and Anya, who have all helped create that culture we all enjoy. As the son of a musician, painter and sculptor, I look forward to continuing to support the arts sector in Casey.

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

I'm pleased to rise and speak on the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023. I'm extremely proud that the launch of this policy happened right in the middle of my electorate of Macnamara—and there's a reason for that! One thing that I'm sure about and that every member right across the parliament can agree on is that Macnamara is the home of our creative sector in Australia. It's definitely something that people in this House know. Macnamara is absolutely at the heart of all cultural activity around the country. We have not only some of Australia's best institutions but also some of the world's best institutions, mixed in with some local and independent companies. We are so fortunate to have so many incredible organisations in my electorate.

If anyone comes to Melbourne, you cannot do so without walking through Southbank, walking past the National Gallery, walking past institutions like the ABC and walking past the big spiral Arts Centre, which is one of the most magnificent theatres in the world. They say Australia has the best opera house, with the outside being in Sydney and the inside being in Melbourne, and you'll know that's absolutely true when you see a production in the Arts Centre. We also have some of the most dynamic and modern theatre companies, like the Malthouse Theatre. In our local backstreets, we have incredible local organisations, like Gasworks Arts Park, which is a real mixture of sculpture, theatre and galleries.

One of my favourite local organisations is Theatre Works in St Kilda. It's a small independent theatre company that is home to some of St Kilda's best local productions. It's a place that really characterises St Kilda. It's just down the road from the Palais Theatre, which is one of the most iconic theatres in Australia and where I'm sure many members of our parliament have seen everything from comedy shows to some of the world's best acts. In case you haven't realised, you should come to Macnamara, come to a show and come and experience some of Australia's best art and productions. That is absolutely what we have to offer.

But it's not just about productions and the creative outlets; it's also about jobs. One in 10 people in my electorate work in the creative sector. It's a significant employer of people. It was only fitting that the launch of Revive happened in Macnamara, in the Gershwin Room of St Kilda's Espy Hotel. That's another great place. If you are in Melbourne, want a night out and want to visit a local watering hole, you could pop into the Espy and enjoy yourself, and the Gershwin Room is one of the best acoustic rooms and one of the best live music rooms.

On the morning of the launch, the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Arts came to our iconic Espy. We had some really incredible artists. We had Deborah Cheetham, who is breathtakingly good. She is an extraordinary artist and singer, and she has helped form a company called Short Black Opera, which is one of the first ensembles led by Indigenous Australians to perform opera and classical music. They are extraordinary and they often play alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras around the country. We had Josh, a didgeridoo player, who really set the tone with very impressive didge playing. Sarah Holland-Batt performed a poem that she had written, and she was very, very impressive as well, but one of the big highlights, of course, was having Missy Higgins come and play a song for the cultural policy. It was a great morning. It was one of the best mornings I've had since winning the election because one thing that was clear about the message coming from our creative sector and coming from all of the wonderful institutions that I'm proud to represent was that we needed a change in cultural policy. In fact we needed a cultural policy.

What the sector was desperate for was, obviously, more funds to support the creation of work and also to take those funds out of government hands and put them back into independent industry led bodies, and that's exactly what we are doing. We, as government, are not there to pick and choose our favourites. There is no doubt that the RISE funding of the previous government went to some worthwhile organisations, and there were organisations in my electorate that were the beneficiary of that funding, and I absolutely don't begrudge them for receiving it, but, in terms of the way in which we are here to design policy, it was not the right way to design policy. Industry should be making decisions about what sort of art they should be funding, not government. Going right back to when George Brandis took money out of the Australia Council and decided to play favourites with the arts sector, we have had a series of coalition governments who, in various forms, were trying to take money out of the Australia Council and put it into projects that they wanted to put it into, and that's wrong. That's not how creative policy should happen, and we are fixing that as part—and it is only one part—of this bill.

This legislative reform is part of a series of legislative reforms that will be there to implement our national cultural policy. We are amending the Australia Council Act, and, while many will be familiar with the name 'the Australia Council', it has had a strong profile in the arts sector and more broadly. But let's go back and go through some of the history of the Australia Council. The Australia Council was the principal Commonwealth arts investment and advisory body since 1975. For nearly half a century, it has been supporting and promoting creative arts practice throughout the country and across all disciplines of the arts. It also provides research and advocacy on issues that affect the sector. For this, it has been recognised nationally and internationally. We want to ensure that the work of the Australia Council continues and is enhanced for the changing and evolving nature of our arts sector so that it is strong and supported for the next 50 years, so we're going to modernise, strengthen and rename the Australia Council. It will be known as 'Creative Australia'.

Through Creative Australia, the arts sector will benefit from greater strategic oversight and engagement. This will go alongside a mechanism for funding decisions that will continue to be at arm's length from government and will make decision on the grounds of artistic merit, not decisions based on favourites of the Liberal Party. Our policy also includes the establishment of independent bodies and funds for First Nations arts and culture, contemporary music and for writers, as well as a Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces. This is an important reform and one that recognises that our theatres, sound recording studios and TV studios must be safe places for all workers. Having project work means that sometimes you have new workplaces, and you are frequently in new workplaces as a creative worker, but that is no excuse for some of the behaviour that we have seen alongside and inside our sector. We are going to support our artists with a strengthened body that will be there to support them and ensure that they have a safe workplace to work in.

As I mentioned at the outset, this is the first in a series of legislative reforms that will implement our national cultural policy. The reason we have staged this approach is to provide an opportunity for consultation to take place in our arts community. However, there are a number of elements that require implementation from 1 July this year, and they are covered in this particular piece of legislation. In addition to giving effect to the name change, this bill will enable the commencement of work on the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces and Music Australia, and bring together Creative Partnerships Australia and the Australian Cultural Fund with the Australia Council. Under the name 'Creative Australia', the role of attracting and recognising public and private sector support for the arts will align with the expertise from within the existing Australia Council to ensure maximum benefits for the arts and for artists. We're also beginning consultation work on quotas for streaming platforms to ensure that, whenever you turn on your TV, there will be Australian content there for our kids and ourselves to enjoy.

Through our national cultural policy, we are committed to improving the quality of Commonwealth investment in the arts sector and to strengthen and streamline access to support, including for artists and arts organisations. This is about making sure that government is there to support our artists and that we value the jobs that are created in our creative sector. But we are not there to pick and choose which art gets funded; that is done by industry. We are ending the days of governments playing favourites. We are going back to the days of governments being there to facilitate Australian stories and to empower Australian artists to do their job.

We all derive enjoyment from the arts. Great art provokes thought, feelings and emotions. We are captivated and we are entertained. But its impact exists beyond these individual responses. The arts are a way that a nation reflects itself to itself and to others. We are richer for having a thriving and vibrant cultural sector. It helps us better understand who we are, and it also helps us show ourselves to the world. I look forward to this thriving under the stewardship of Creative Australia. Our reforms will ensure we have a governance and funding body that meets the expectations of the arts community for another five decades.

I am privileged to be the representative of an electorate with arts at its absolute heart. Macnamara is one of Australia's premier cultural precincts. As the federal member for Macnamara, I will continue to advocate to ensure that our workers in the creative sector are supported to do what they do best. Our local community is much more colourful, inclusive and vibrant through our artists. I'm glad we have prioritised ensuring the arts sector is well governed, well funded and well supported. But most of all, through our national cultural policy, we are demonstrating to the arts that the contribution of the sector is valued. I look forward to seeing what will come, what will be produced, what stories will be told and what the future of our creative sector has for our wonderful community. I commend the bill to the House.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Arts and culture, through theatre, music, film, television, visual art and literature tell our stories back to us. They share familiar and unique perspectives. They shape our dreams and our imagination and improve our wellbeing, our social cohesion, our health, our sense of place and belonging, and our sense of pride. They bring people together, especially in rural and regional Australia.

The Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill signals the beginning of a new era for arts and culture in Australia. It amends the Australia Council Act 2013 to allow the Australia Council, the government's principal arts investment development advisory board, to operate under the new name 'Creative Australia'.

Creative Australia will, in addition to the Australia Council's existing functions, establish a Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, as well as Music Australia, Writers Australia and the First Nations first body. This will provide direct support to these sectors so they can continue to grow. The new Creative Australia is part of the government's major national cultural and arts policies they're rolling out, which they're calling 'Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place'.

Revive is an apt name for a sector that's been neglected for far too long. Our arts sector suffered major blows during COVID-19. As theatres, art galleries and music events shut down across the country while the lockdowns were on, many of our arts workers were out of work. Sadly, the previous government hesitated for far too long in including the arts sector in COVID support. As a result many workers felt they were being treated as hobbyists; their value to society was undermined. That's why it's heartening to see this government make the largest investment in our arts and culture sector in over a decade. This policy will make artists and workers feel recognised, that their work is meaningful to all Australians, that it's a job that benefits our nation.

Under the Revive policy, the government is committing additional resources and funding to the arts in regional Australia, recognising that regional Australia benefits socially and economically when the arts sector is given the attention it deserves. Arts and culture sectors don't exist in a vacuum. In regional Victoria, they drive tourism, and it has flow-on effects, with great benefits to our hospitality and accommodation sectors. In my electorate of Indi, these sectors employ thousands of people. These are the people who teach our kids to play the piano and dance. They're the bands that perform in local pubs. They're the artists who perform at our local theatres and exhibit in our local art galleries, both large and small. They're our sound engineers, our theatre technicians, our roadies, our curators, our editors, our costume designers, our bookings and ticketing officers.

One of the pillars of Revive is to build strong cultural infrastructure. It will provide support across the spectrum of institutions which shape our arts, culture and heritage—galleries, libraries, museums, archives and digital collections—so they are restored, built and maintained. The government has committed $11.8 million for sharing the content of national collections by establishing a program of long-term loans of works from the National Gallery of Australia's collection to regional cultural institutions, and I welcome that.

The Benalla Art Gallery is the largest art gallery in Indi. It's a jewel in the crown, but, after long-term funding cuts, it's lost its sparkle. Benalla has a master plan to realise its potential as a world-class regional gallery, but it needs support to realise that dream. Phase 1 of its plan is due for completion very shortly and will see the construction of a secure off-site facility for the optimal storage of art and cultural artefacts, so much so that they can now welcome collections of the NGA that the government has specifically identified in its policy. But, to finish its plan, the Benalla Art Gallery needs more help, and it's calling on the Commonwealth for support towards the $7.5 million it needs to expand gallery space, to activate opportunities and to improve the interface and activities between the gallery, Lake Benalla, the central business district and the heritage botanical gardens.

Let me paint you a picture of this local treasure. Housed in an iconic modernist building and set amongst the beautiful botanical gardens, the Benalla Art Gallery has on its flank the magnificent bronze sculpture, by sculptor Louis Laumen, of soldier, surgeon and war hero Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop. Weary was born in Benalla in 1907 and later attended Benalla High School. I'm sure many of you know about Weary. From March 1942 to the end of the Second World War, he was a prisoner of war under Japanese command in Singapore and, from January 1943, in Thailand, where he worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. Unintimidated by the Japanese, he became a legend with the Australian prisoners for his modesty, for his remarkable efforts in scrounging food for the sick and for building makeshift hospitals and operating with handmade instruments.

Every place has a story. Every story has a place. Benalla Art Gallery is the perfect place to deliver the Revive policy's vision of the very best of our national collection touring the whole country. These artworks are proudly supported and owned by all Australians, and they should be accessed by everyone, no matter where they live. So let's fund our regional art galleries, like our gallery in Benalla, so that we can actually see this policy come to fruition. This funding would bring people together by giving us the space to share our artworks and celebrate local, national and international works and the stories they bring to us. I want to recognise Eric Nash, the Director of the Benalla Art Gallery, for his dogged advocacy on behalf of his community and the arts sector across our region, and the dedicated committee that supports him, chaired by Barbara Alexander AO.

Investment in our local arts infrastructure is not just our galleries but it's our theatres. The HotHouse Theatre redevelopment in Wodonga is one of the region's key cultural tourism assets. HotHouse is the only regionally located producing theatre company in Australia, and it's with us in Wodonga, on the border, on the Murray River. It has a rich and celebrated history in commissioning, producing, nurturing and presenting new contemporary Australian theatre. The company offers professional creative development opportunities and education through theatre training and drama programs. It engages the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and it has a particular focus on young artists. Now HotHouse needs $1.2 million over the next four years. Imagine what they could do with this investment if it was funded under Revive. I want to acknowledge the work of the HotHouse director, Karla Conway, and her board for all the work they do in continuing to deliver high-quality, original, entertaining theatre to the broader region I proudly represent.

Under the Revive policy, the government will increase regional arts funding by $8.5 million. This fund supports sustainable cultural development in our regional communities. The government also intends to increase funding for regional arts through the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. This program could fund arts and cultural precincts that transform a place and benefit communities across regional cities all over rural Australia—precincts such as Benalla, as I've described, and the HotHouse, as I've described, but also the Wangaratta Creative Precinct, which was recently approved at a council meeting in Wangaratta, and places like the Mount Hotham resort, in Indi. Through a series of art installations, Mount Hotham Alpine Arts is looking to diversify its year-round tourism and give people more reasons to visit the resort at any time of year. This project involves the installation of large, high-impact, permanent sculptural pieces across the resort's five key precincts which draw from the natural environment, the traditional owner heritage and the ski field history. The alpine resorts need $1.5 million to fund this exciting arts precinct proposal.

Festivals Australia will also continue to be funded by the government under the Revive policy. I call on them to direct some of this to the world-famous Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. Since 1990 this festival has attracted a diverse, eclectic mix of jazz and blues greats and rising stars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and home ground Australia. This festival had a triumphant return in 2022 after a number of missed years. It's home to Australia's most prestigious jazz competition; the National Jazz Awards have been a highlight of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues each year since the festival began in 1990. It's launched many a brilliant career.

Another core principle of Revive is to ensure all Australians, regardless of language, literacy, geography, age or education, have the opportunity to access and participate in arts and culture. Reliable digital infrastructure is key to fulfilling this principle, and this requires the NBN. I feel like I speak about the need to deliver the NBN to regional Australia almost daily in this place; in fact, I stood here yesterday at about the same time talking about it. If we are truly going to deliver to everyone in Australia in accessing the arts, no matter where they live, then we must finish the NBN. We can't have a streaming service that doesn't stream to everyone.

The resources delivered under the Revive policy will transform and safeguard our regional arts and cultural sector to be sustainable and vibrant into the future. That's what the government promises, and that is truly my hope. It will provide new skills and opportunities for our young people and connect people of all ages across our large region, if it's done well.

According to the Australia Council for the Arts, in 2019 around seven out of 10 people in regional Australia attended arts activities. It's a funny thing; when I moved to the country after spending a couple of years in the city, my city friends said to me, 'Oh, how will you get to the theatre?' I asked them, 'How often do you go to the theatre?' To be honest, I went more often than they did! So seven out of 10 regional Australians are just like me; they make the most of arts and culture, if they have the opportunity locally to do so.

A policy that invests in digital and cultural infrastructure, that invests in our festivals and theatres, will continue to foster this participation and all the economic benefits that come with it, if it's done right.

Once again I wish to use this platform to extend a warm invitation to both our Minister for the Arts and our Special Envoy for the Arts to pencil in a visit to Indi. Perhaps you could come down to the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues in October. Perhaps you'd like to be there for the national jazz awards. We'd love to have you. Come to us and enjoy everything that the Indi artists have to offer.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very glad to speak in support of the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023. I welcome the timeliness, substance and responsiveness of the Minister for the Arts in his delivery of a new national cultural policy, which was well overdue. This bill is one of the first steps in the implementation of that policy. The policy is called Revive. It is appropriately titled, but it should be a matter of sober and even in some ways sad reflection that we have called it Revive, because it tells you something about where arts, culture and creative industries are at in this country. They are not in a good place. That's a terrible shame. It's a loss for all of us.

It was lovely hearing the member for Indi talk about all of the various art activities and organisations and arts workers in her community. I think we could all tell that story. In fact, I think it would be a good thing for people who represent the 151 electorates around the nation to spend some time actually trying to itemise and understand by category the different kinds of cultural and arts organisations—if they don't already know—because it is, unfortunately, still an under-regarded part of life in Australia. I think it is part of a kind of an anti-intellectual streak, which is perhaps the unfortunate consequence of having an egalitarian culture where we tend to lean into sport and other kinds of physical endeavours. There has been a bit of a tendency throughout time to think that arts and culture are perhaps not down to earth enough. They are seen as something you do as an added extra and you do as an indulgence and they are seen as something that people do as a matter of personal predilection. Rather, arts and culture are actually one of the most important things about being human and certainly one of the most important things about human communities in so many ways.

We rush too quickly to try to economically justify arts, culture and creative industries and their workers. That tells us something else about our tendencies. Unless we can find a way of saying that they have economic importance, we feel like we can't make a convincing argument as to why they are important more generally. That's stupid. I think most of us know that the most important things in our lives aren't the things that can be quantified or have economic value. You can take health as an example. It doesn't matter how many assets you have or how much money you have, if you don't have your health you have nothing.

Equally, if we didn't have all of the rich forms of cultural activities in our lives, what would we have? What would be the point of a material life, or a material life alone, if it weren't for music, dance, stories and of course these days film and gaming even? These are the things that really give life meaning and help us understand our past and look to our future. They connect us. They are intrinsic to our identity and help us shape the best form of our future selves. Arts, culture and creative industries are actually the most dynamic drivers of all of those things. Frankly, if someone on reflection doesn't recognise those as the most important things, I'd be very surprised.

As I said, this bill is the first instalment of a long project—the Revive project. It transfers the functions of Creative Partnerships Australia to the Australia Council, which will be known as Creative Australia in the future. It shifts $15.2 million in funding across from 2023-24 for three years, and then there will be $5 million in annual funding that's applied to the Creative Partnerships piece. That's indexed and is ongoing from 2026-27. But, as the minister has explained, it's the first step in trying to give arts and cultural workers and enterprises a fair go, and it's the first step in repairing a lot of damage that's happened in recent times.

That damage began before the pandemic. It's another thing that I think we have to be wary of—a sort of lazy thinking that looks at some of the circumstances we faced and says, 'Well, that was the pandemic.' Some people, perhaps those on the other side, will say, 'A trillion dollars worth of debt—that was the pandemic.' But the debt had doubled before the pandemic, and a third of it was added after that.

The same is true for what has happened to the arts and cultural sector. It really kicked off around the time of the awful 2014 budget. The then minister pulled $100 million out of the Australia Council, literally defunding 65 arts organisations overnight. It said, 'You've previously been a recipient of four-year funding under the Australia Council. That's gone. Goodbye and good night.' That was incredibly harmful. The defunding and the demonisation of two of our greatest cultural institutions, the ABC and SBS, had a terrible impact as well, particularly on screen producers, and I say that as someone who has a very strong screen production industry in my electorate of Fremantle. So that happened before the pandemic.

And then, during the pandemic, when we were controlling infection in the early days, the need to socially isolate and not gather together, and not being able to move around Australia to the same degree, had an impact that couldn't be avoided, because it was part of the health response. But there were things that could have been avoided. Some things could have been avoided if not for the ineptitude in the construction of JobKeeper. It should have been foreseen that there were people who worked in arts and cultural enterprises who were likely to be left out because of the way JobKeeper was set up, and that proved to be the case.

So you had this—I was going to say double whammy, but you could say it was a triple whammy. The first part is that, unfortunately, arts and cultural workers aren't properly paid in this country. There are plenty of people who you can say aren't properly paid. It's a failure of our economic system sometimes, and it's a failure of the market when you have people doing vital work on the front line in health care and aged care and areas like that who are not properly paid. It's no less of a tragedy that people who apply their heart and soul, all of their great skill and expertise, to the production of cultural artefacts are substantially underpaid. It has ever been thus in Australia, and we need to do something about it. That is the first whammy. The second whammy that followed was the COVID restrictions and the impacts of COVID which couldn't be avoided.

But then there was the response of government which left literally tens of thousands of arts and cultural workers out in the cold. That did completely unjustified harm to people and arts enterprises at the time. Some of that harm will be lasting because there are people—particularly, I would say, younger and mid-career artists—who were essentially forced to say, 'I'm going to give this up. I've got a gift'—a writer, a poet, a dancer, a playwright, a musician—'and I'm on the path of trying to make that work, which is hard enough. But now, in these circumstances, I have to give that up. I have to go and become something else in order to survive.' It'll take us some time to really measure that harm.

I think it's a terrible shame because, in many instances of crisis, it's arts and culture workers who are often the first to step up to be part of the response. I certainly reflected with some bitterness, when I saw how arts and cultural workers were being treated in the course of the pandemic, on what happened after the summer 2019 bushfires occurred on the east coast, which were awful—awful. One of the first things that happened in the early part of 2019 is that musicians in my community joined with the Fremantle Arts Centre, a great cultural organisation, and put on two concerts to raise money to send to the eastern states. In the end, I think it was about $100,000 that was raised over those two concerts. Musicians performed for free and the promoter made their contribution free of charge, and all those things were done simply to maximise the fundraising that could then be directed to people who'd suffered awfully through those bushfires. It was called From WA, With Love. It was amazing to be there. It felt like it was exactly what you'd expect to see from the Australian community at its best: coming together, doing something creative and celebratory—but also sombre and reflective, considering the circumstances—and raising funds and saying to another community in another part of Australia, 'We're with you; we feel and understand your pain, and we want to make a contribution to your wellbeing.'

Unfortunately, when COVID came along, the same didn't happen in reverse. It happened at a local level. I know of plenty of people who made an effort, to the extent that they could, the moment we were able to go to a gig again. In Western Australia, we were fortunate in our response in that we probably had longer periods of time where we weren't subjected to lockdowns, and the moment that it was possible to go out and support live arts and culture, the community did that. They did it not just to help out arts and cultural workers and enterprises at a time of need, but, as I said before, because the experience of the pandemic made us realise how important those parts of our lives are. So that's certainly something that I reflect on.

More broadly, when we talk about the importance of a future made in Australia, and when we say that we should make things here as a matter of self-sufficiency—and, I think, as a matter of pride in our productive capacity and in the things that are distinctively Australian—then, of course, making things in Australia has to include making stories, songs, dance performances, screen products, movies, drama, children's television and games and all those things. They should be made in Australia—and not just, as we might say in other areas, as a matter of self-sufficiency. Frankly, as to some things that we make—it could be a pencil, and it's great if we can make pencils in Australia, but I dare say we don't—does it really matter if someone else makes them better and cheaper than us? Probably not. Does it matter if we don't make songs and stories and dance performances, and TV drama and children's drama in Australia? Absolutely it does, because that is core to who we are. We cannot protect, enhance and evolve our identity, and we cannot understand ourselves and our past and shape our future, if we don't have strong arts and cultural production in every area.

So in addition to that, I could say: creativity is king—or queen; or I should say, it is gold. One thing that almost every piece of innovation and every meaningful kind of productivity will have to involve in the future is creativity. The people who are the best at what creativity involves as a human productive process are, of course, artists, and we don't use enough of that. We don't actually say to ourselves, in lots of areas of life, 'Let's get creative and let's involve the creatives.' We'd be better off if we did.

Needless to say, our arts and cultural and creative industries are critical to innovation. They are also critical to some other areas of economic life in Australia—particularly our two biggest service exports: education and tourism. All of the surveys show that, when students in other parts of the world are considering a study destination, one of the things they look for is the broader cultural experience that they're likely to have. So there's no doubt that, when we put our best foot forward artistically and culturally, we do a lot for our international education sector. The same goes for tourism. It's incredibly significant that we've managed to get to the point where we have two service exports in our top six export earners. Post COVID, they should become stronger again. You're not going to make international education or tourism stronger without having a strong arts and cultural sector.

We believe very strongly that Australia should be a place that makes things. As I said, we should make songs, stories, plays, screen drama, documentaries—all kinds of performance and all kinds of visual arts. It's essential to who we are, and it is among the best things that we get to experience. The people who produce it are among the most important people in our society. They're not valued enough; we should value them more. We've begun on that path with Revive, but there's a lot more to do, and I welcome this bill.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023, which I will refer to as the Creative Australia bill. This, I understand, is the first in a series of bills that will implement the government's national cultural policy, Revive, announced on 30 January this year, so I will save the majority of my remarks on the policy itself for a later time. I note only that, on first glance, it offers nothing—or, in fact, very little—for the people of Flinders, whose arts and cultural activity remain beyond the remit of the Australia Council or, indeed, of public funding through Regional Arts Victoria, as we are not considered regional but for very small slivers of the peninsula where our cultural bodies tend not to be resident.

The Australia Council is the vehicle by which the government intends to implement the national cultural policy. This bill provides for the Australia Council to operate under the name 'Creative Australia' as an interim measure. It is, in that respect, the beginning of a rebranding exercise for the Australia Council for the Arts, which has been known as such since it was established by the Rt Hon. Harold Holt, Liberal Prime Minister of Australia, when he rose in this place on 1 November 1967, albeit a bit further down the hill, and he said:

I now wish to inform the House of two decisions by the Government and a number of other developments in the field of cultural activities.

The Government, for some time, has been actively considering ways to increase, at national level, Commonwealth patronage of the arts without creating a monolithic structure which could inhibit the free play of our cultural interests and enthusiasms at all levels. For some years now Government encouragement for the arts in general has been increasing and we feel that financial aid properly directed on the best advice is one significant area where the Commonwealth Government can provide material assistance. We need to ensure that we have a system for giving financial assistance which takes full account of the important role played, not only by State governments, but by municipal governments and a host of professional and amateur organisations throughout the country.

With this in mind the Government, in its first decision on cultural activities, has decided to establish an Australian Council for the Arts to be its financial agent and adviser on the performing arts and other activities connected with the arts in general.

Thus began the life of the Australia Council for the Arts, which has continued in more or less the same form under the same name for over 50 years.

I had the great pleasure of serving on the board of the Australia Council for six of those years, and I recognise here the remarkable people both with whom I served on that board and across the Australia Council's leadership, who deserve our gratitude for the dynamic state in which our cultural sector finds itself after the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I particularly recognise Adrian Collette, CEO, and Tim Blackwell, executive director of corporate resources, who worked so closely with Dr Stephen Arnott, deputy secretary of creative economy and the arts, whose partnership and tireless work helped to sustain the Australian cultural sector through those dark years.

More meaningfully, this bill merges Creative Partnerships Australia with the Australia Council, soon to be Creative Australia. Creative Partnerships Australia was created by the Rudd Labor government under the stewardship of arts enthusiast and former Labor leader Simon Crean back in 2013. Its establishment followed a thorough review of private sector support for the arts undertaken by Harold Mitchell. At that time, it brought together two independent—yet successful—bodies focused on arts philanthropy: the Australian Business Arts Foundation and Artsupport. Its inaugural CEO, who remains CEO to this day, is Ms Fiona Menzies, who brought to that role a successful career in arts administration and leadership in arts policy at the national level.

Under the leadership of Ms Menzies and a remarkable line-up of directors engaged across arts and culture in Australia, Creative Partnerships has been extremely effective in its task of raising philanthropic support for the arts. In its last financial year, it raised almost $10 million from over 9,000 individual donors. In its first year, it raised less than $1 million. It is worth noting that its peak fundraising achievements occurred in a COVID affected year. The CPA staff are experts in arts fundraising. The sector has benefited enormously from their independence from the government's funding priorities and processes. In addition, they have provided a vital and impartial source of advice to the sector, with a local presence in most capital cities.

It is proposed that these functions be absorbed by the Australia Council. It's worth noting briefly that the Council tried its hand at philanthropic activity in the past, without resounding success. In my time on the board, a co-investment subcommittee—

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

The member for Flinders will resume their seat. It being 6.30 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192(b). The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The member for Flinders will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed on a future day.